The Lodge
by LunarTheMooncake
Summary: Her hands shook as she stood there, unmoving, bleeding, staring in shock at the body in the middle of the room. She fell to the ground, not noticing everyone else coming in because they failed to find it. They failed to save another life.
1. Arrival

"So what do you think?" Lukas asked in a low voice, pointedly ignoring the fighting that was happening behind them in the van. "Should I ask her out by giving her a rose or should I ask her out by painting a sign that says 'Will you go out with me?'"

"Just grab and kiss her, then ask her out," Angel snapped, feeling irritable. "You two have been friends for two years already ― this shouldn't be hard!"

"But this is different!" Lukas insisted. "What if she doesn't like me back and we aren't friends anymore?"

Angel rolled her eyes and said, "Jesse is the kind of girl who cherishes her friends ― she won't abandon you just because you have feelings for her!"

"But what if things between us won't be the same again?" Lukas insisted again. "What if we can't act normally together after I confessed?"

Angel threw her arms in the air, making sure to leave her book in her lap. "This is why I don't give out dating advice! After the two girls I dated back in the past, I thought I knew about dating but nooo! Stupid friends dancing around each other…"

Lukas opened his mouth to say something, but something cut him off.

 _CRASH!_

"Oh for heaven's sake!" Angel barked, turning around, snarling, "I've had it with you two! **STOP FIGHTING**!"

Jace and Axel stopped in place and fell out of their seats, both males looking terrified. It was remarkably about how two males can be stopped by a girl shorter than them.

"This is the tenth time I had to stop you two! I know it's been five hours, but that doesn't mean you can pick a fight!" Angel barked. "Aiden, be a dear and sit between them so they can't fight. You too Gill."

"Roger," Gill grinned as he and Aiden moved to the middle, not wanting to piss off Angel than she already was.

"You know it's kind of weird." Petra popped her head up, "Angel is the youngest here, yet, she's the most mature out of all of us. A good mom for all of us idiots even though she's two-three years younger than us." She joked.

The brunette girl popped her head up and snickered. "Yeah. 'Lukas, stop being a butt. Jace, stop eating all the cookies.'" She mimicked her friend in a slightly higher voice, bursting into giggles soon after.

Angel rubbed her temple and ignored Maya, who continued mimicking her friend in the most exaggerated way possible.

Jesse popped her head up next, "You alright, Angel? You've been really irritable for the past hour."

"I'm alright ― just a stupid headache. It'll pass," Angel said dismissively.

Knowing that Angel will only insist that she's fine, Olivia sighed and look out the window, blinking from surprise, "Oh look, you guys! We're here!"

Jace threw his hands in the air and reached for the ear door eagerly, "Effing finally! Let's go!"

"Jace! Don't open the door yet! We're still driving!"

"Alright, keep your hair on!"

"Oh, so when your girlfriend orders you around, you do behave."

"SHE IS NOT MY FREAKING GIRLFRIEND YOU LITTLE-"

* * *

The climb up the mountain was cold and exhausting, but due to the amount of jumping and running in their treasure hunts, they made it to the lodge in twenty minutes.

Jesse gently knocked the door and stepped back.

A brunette opened the door, blinking when she saw the group. "Oh!" She pulls out a piece of paper and scanned it, "You must be the New Order and The Blaze Rods." She folds the paper and smiled faintly. "Please come in, we were expecting you."

The brunette had shoulder-length hair parted in the middle with two magenta streaks on each side of her head, slightly tanned, but also pale (if that makes sense) skin, wearing a purple jacket with a collar with the sleeves rolled up in the middle of her forearm, a v-collar lilac shirt underneath the jacket, blue pants, dark gray shoes, and a pair of blue headphones with a gold star on the earmuffs of the headphones. She looks like she's ready to dance.

They stepped inside the warm, toasty lodge.

"So, uh, why did you invite us here?" Olivia asked as they walk through the hall, their footsteps echoing.

The brunette turned around, "Simple. A week to relax from the stress happening lately."

"But, uh, you don't even know us." Olivia points out, "You don't know us personally I mean. I'm not even sure if you're a fan of ours."

"Things have been stressful between the members of the New Order, correct?" The brunette asked. "Fights, arguments, crimes all over the corner, etc... I just thought I can give you all a week to relax for once. Don't worry, I had someone take care of the town. As for the Blaze Rods, I wanted you all to bond once more, to talk as friends."

"How did you know-?"

The brunette turned back around, "That is for you to find out, and for me to know." She reached out and grabbed a doorknob, opening it, "Here we are. This is the living room. The dorms are to your right and the other rooms are to your left. The other guests are out exploring the other rooms, so perhaps you all will meet tomorrow. Your rooms are labeled with nameplates with your name and drawing. The bathrooms are at the end of the hall, and the training room is near the dorms. There are guest rooms for the purpose of extra beds if your bed somehow explodes." The brunette turned around again, smiling, "I am the Host, and I hope you enjoy your stay."

"Wait-" But The Host was gone before Angel could ask her a question.

"Weird girl." Axel made a face.

Olivia scoffed and said, "Axel, be nice. She's our host."

"Yeah yeah-"

"One more thing." The Host popped out of nowhere, successfully scaring the crap out of Axel and Olivia. "If there are any problems, please call me or my assistants and we'll fix it immediately. Take care." She smiled and held out a hand. Specifically to Angel. "I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is ForeverFairy. But you may call me Ann."

Seeing as she was holding out a hand to her specifically, Angel gently reached out and shook the brunette's hand slightly.

Immediately, a chill went up her spine, and nausea filled her. Angel gasped and retched, shaking her hand out of Ann's gentle grip and slapping her hand over her mouth, trying to fight back the sensation.

Ann tilted her head, "You look rather sick." She stated the obvious. Adjusting her headphones, she said, "I say you should go to your room to rest. It is not wise to explore while sick. Even more so with winter approaching."

Angel swallowed and nodded, swaying slightly and falling straight into Petra.

The redhead quickly caught her, startled and a little worried, "Wow, you don't look so good."

Ann smiled faintly. "I advise you take her to her room and have her rest up. I'm sure she'll be fine tomorrow."

Petra hesitantly nodded and carried to the dorms. Passing by rooms labeled with Musa, Raven, Robin, fighter33000, Anna-The-Cherry, Seriblaze, mariosonicfan16, Berry-O-Pokemob, coughandcolds, and ArizaLuca, she finally found the room labeled with Angel's name, and laid the female on the bed, before leaving to explore with the others.

* * *

When Angel woke up, she felt something was...off.

The fact that she was laying in white sand was explanatory.

She opened her eyes and stared, feelings the white sand under her fingers. She was near the ocean and gold seashells everywhere she looked. Looking up at the sky, there was some sort of...glass sphere enclosing the space around her, with the moon glowing in the velvet sky. But what confused her the most was a lone table sitting in the center of the 'sphere', with a man with an abnormally long nose, and a woman in blue sitting at it. The man look at her and his smile grew.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."


	2. Introductions and The Lights Going Out

Angel yawned as she exited her room, feeling much better than last night and nearly jump out of her skin when she almost crashed into a brunette standing right by her door.

"Oh, Jesus freaking Christ!" She shrieked, stumbling back and crashing into something. She doesn't know. She was too focused on the brunette, who was currently chuckling at the surprised look on Angel's face.

The brunette had her hair reaching to her mid back and royal blue eyes, wearing a black leather jacket with some sort of symbol on the back, a dark blue shirt (which fade to a lighter blue near the bottom) underneath the jacket, black tights tucked into black combat boots, and black fingerless gloves.

She was also tall. At least five inches shorter than Axel.

"I apologize for startling you," The brunette said, ceasing her chuckling. "The Host asked me to wake you up for breakfast, but I see you're already awake."

"Obviously," Angel mumbled from sarcasm.

The brunette snorted. "Watch that sass. It isn't going to get you out of situations all the time."

"I know, I know," Angel said dismissively, getting up to her feet.

The brunette chuckled again, then blinked. "Oh, I also forgot. Ann and the other guests are in the living room, waiting for us." She then motion for Angel to follow her. "Please follow me."

"Wait, I never got your name!" Angel stumbled after her, nearly falling over when the brunette stopped in her tracks again.

"You can call me Raven." 'Raven' smiled faintly.

Angel blinked and frowned, noticing the wording in Raven's words. "... Is that not your real name?"

"Observant..." Raven said, nodding. "Yes, 'Raven' is not my real name. My apologies, the assistants are not allowed to reveal their real names."

Angel narrowed her eyes, "Why is that?"

"I'm not very fond of my real name. So Ann decided it'll be a fantastic idea to give us code names just for fun. Come." With that, Raven turned around and walked away, Angel quickly following a second later.

* * *

The two immediately arrived to chaos in the living room as soon as they entered the room.

The room was a mess, Axel, Jace, and an unknown male brunette were wrestling, Gill was cheering on the fight (as usual), Aiden was staying as far away from the fight as possible, Jesse and Lukas were literally shouting at the top of their lungs for the three to stop and behave but that obviously wasn't working. Petra, Maya, and Olivia all looked very annoyed at the fight happening in front of them, seven unknown individuals were staring at the three with bemused looks and Ann... Ann was reading a book and ignoring the fight happening right in front of her.

Angel facepalmed as Raven stared at the chaos happening in the living room and the mess the three boys made. "I swear, this happens every time I wake up after everyone else." Angel sighed, shaking her head. She was definitely not amused and was about to yell at them to stop, but something else came out of her mouth that sounded much different than her usual voice. " _BEHAVE CHILDREN_."

Ann hid a small smirk as the three jerk forward and slam each other's heads against each other, emitting loud yelps as they grabbed at their heads. Angel covered her mouth from surprise at the words that came out of her mouth (and how bolder and cunning they sound) and, after getting over her amusement and shock, Raven walked towards the unknown male and pulled harshly at his ear, emitting a loud squawk from him.

"Ad-Robin." Raven looked sternly at the brunette. "Please explain why you are fist-fighting with two of our guests."

"It wasn't my fault- it was Jace's!" 'Robin' snapped, pointing over to Jace.

Angel slowly removed her hands from her mouth to reveal a creepy smile directed to Jace. "Is that so?"

Jace started sweating bullets as Angel slowly walked over the three.

One of the unknown individuals (who is a girl and has a ponytail) stared wide-eyed as Angel walked over to Jace. "What's with that creepy smile—Why are you walking over to a chair?—Ohmygodshe'spickingupthechairandchargingathim—!"

"ANGEL, PUT DOWN THE CHAIR."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, and the three boys were now sporting a huge bump on their heads and were being lectured by Angel.

"Honestly!" Angel said, frowning. "I don't know what to do with you two! And some guy I don't know! This happens every single time I wake up after all of you! When can you not fight?"

"Sorry, mom." Jace and Axel groaned in unison, rubbing their heads.

"Oh come on! I'm not that much of a nag!"

Before they could retort that, Ann cleared her throat and put her book away. "Are you finished with the scolding?"

Angel let out a long sigh and nodded, "You can say that."

Ann showed off her infamous faint smile and stood up, "Alright, let's start with introductions." She points over to the girl with the ponytail from earlier. "This is Seriblaze -"

"But you can call me Seri." 'Seri' smiled a bit nervously and inched away from Angel. Seri had brown hair tied in a ponytail with a light brown hair tie, cheerful brown eyes, wearing a short-sleeved grayish-blue unzipped jacket, a purple long-sleeved shirt under it, blue jeans and brown sneakers.

Ann points over to a girl wearing red glasses. "This is Anna-The-Cherry. But she prefers Anna."

'Anna' gave a little "Hello," and smiled. Anna had long dark-brown hair with the bottom of her hair pink, sparkling lime-green eyes, wearing a pink long-sleeved shirt with black stripes, a strange green necklace around her neck, dark-blue jeans and black sneakers.

Ann then pointed over to a girl... guy... whatever. It was a bit hard to tell if they were a girl or boy. "This is coughandcolds. But they prefer Mason."

Mason gave a slight wave, "She/hers pronouns and he/his pronouns are okay." Mason had dark brown hair in a puffy ponytail (Mason, if I got anything in your description wrong, please let me know, and I'll fix it immediately) with strands of hair covering the top part of their face, dark brown eyes, wearing a light gray jacket, a white shirt underneath, a green bandana tied around their left arm, dark gray pants, and black shoes.

"This here is mariosonicfan16." Ann pointed over to another girl with glasses. "But call her Kate."

Kate nodded and smiled. "Nice to meet you all." Kate had short black hair that managed to brush her shoulders, gleeful brown eyes, wearing black bracelets on her wrists with a heart on her left wrist and a butterfly on her right, a purple glove on her right hand, a dark grey T-shirt with the Linkin Park logo (in which Angel is a huge fan of), jeans, and dark grey shoes.

"fighter33000, but friends call him William." Ann motion over to one of the only males of the unknown group.

William waved, smiling, "Hi there." William had slight neat dark brown hair with a beard, wearing gloves on both of his hands, dark brown pants, a light brown shirt matched with a dark brown jacket, and black shoes.

"ArizaLuca, but we call her Ariza for short." Ann point over to the tallest female in the group, standing at almost 7 feet.

Ariza smiled faintly and waved. Ariza had short black hair a little past her shoulders, one purple and one red streak running through it with the bottom grayish-blue, lime-green eyes, wearing a black flannel with a pen resting in the pocket, a red t-shirt, jeans, and dark brown leather combat boots. She was carrying a large brown bag, in which she was carrying with ease despite the size.

Ann gently nudged one of the unknown girls in the group forward, giving a small comforting smile.

The girl nodded and smiled. "I'm Berry-O-Pokemob but friends call me Tacey." Tacey had long red hair with a small part of her hair tied with a small bead with little wings and green eyes, wearing a black short-sleeved off-shoulder shirt, blue straps on her shoulders, two belts that cross over each other, dark blue shorts rolled up slightly, black tights, white boots up to her knees, white wristbands, and a blue crystal necklace around her neck.

"This dork over here..." Ann looks over to Robin "is Robin. Raven's twin brother and one of my assistants."

"Yo!" Robin grinned and waved. Robin looks just like Raven, with the royal blue eyes and brown hair, but his hair was a lot messier and his eyes were more bright with life than Raven's eyes. He was wearing a red hoodie that faded to a darker color at the bottom (and made his muscles stand out and now that Angel thought about it... if you look closely at Raven's form, you'll see that she's muscular as well), a lime-green shirt underneath the hoodie with a symbol that looks exactly like the symbol on Raven's jacket, jeans tucked into black combat boots, and black fingerless gloves.

"And this..." Ann points over to a young woman in the group. "is Musa. My other assistant."

Musa uncrossed her arms and waved. Musa had straight long black hair that reached to her waist, onyx eyes that seem dull in the light, very very very unhealthy skin, wearing a purple tank top that exposes her stomach under a black fluffy jacket, purple headphones with a music note on the earmuffs hidden in her hair, a black belt, silver pants, and black shoes. Like Ann, she looks ready to dance.

"And everyone, they are The New Order of the Stone and The Blaze Rods." Ann moves on to introduce the two groups. "The leaders of The New Order of the Stone, Jesse and her twin brother Jace, along with Axel, Olivia, Petra, Lukas, and Angelina-"

"I prefer Angel." Angel gave a small nod.

"And The Blaze Rods. Aiden, Maya, and Gill." Ann pointed out each person.

"Blaze Rods!" Gill jumped up and shouted eagerly.

Angel shifted and rubbed her arm. "I'm guessing we're done with introductions? I want to play Dead By Daylight..."

Raven snorted and nudged her twin brother, "Look Robin. Another DBD fan."

The blonde tilted her head, "You play DBD?"

"Yup!" Robin flexed his arm, grinning. "Survivor all the way. What do you usually play?"

Angel raised her brow and said, "Killer. Although I play as a Survivor when I play with The Blaze Rods." And she daintily smiled.

Jace studdered. "Oh god, no wonder. Her executions..."

"Let's play then!" Robin said, a smug smirk appearing. "I bet I can escape from you, Miss Killer."

Angel's brows went up, then she crosses her arms and smirked. "We'll see. Just to let you know, I'm not going easy on you." She twisted around. "Aiden! Gill! Maya! Go get PCs and play with us!"

Said three grinned at each other at the thought of facing Angel as The Killer. Angel may be terrifying when she's playing Killer, but it just made it even more challenging.

Seri tilted her head. "What's Dead By Daylight?"

When a wide grin appeared on Angel's face, Seri immediately regrets asking. "Want me to show you?"

* * *

"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!" Robin slammed his fists repeatedly on the desk, before leaning back in his seat and covering his face. "FUCK!"

Angel cackled away in her seat, "Gotcha! Oh, hello there Maya! Come here!"

Maya laughed and spammed the keyboard, "Come and get me, Angel!"

To explain what happened, Robin saw Angel while he was fixing up a generator, so he decided to mess around with her a bit by getting them to run around in circles and screaming, "I'M GUNNA WASTE YOUR TIME. I'M GUNNA WASTE YOUR TIME. I'M TOO GOOD FOR YOU. I'M TOO GOOD FOR YOU."

That was what they were doing before.

At least until Angel threw hatchets at him and hooked him on a meat hook.

Thing is, she's playing as The Huntress. Which means she has a long ranged weapon and an ax. That was what Robin didn't know since he usually had The Shape and The Hag as Killer.

"Gill, save me! Save me!" Robin begged the bearded male next to him.

"I'm trying to distract Angel from getting Maya, I can't help you right now!" Gill shouted as Angel laughed maniacally in the background while chasing a laughing Maya. "Besides, you got yourself in this situation, you're on your own."

"I just popped a generator so I think I can come over," Aiden said as he started running over to Robin in the game.

"Thank you- _FUCK_ , the Entity's here, hurry!"

"Shit! She's here! Sorry, Robin! You're on your own!"

"Get back here, Aiden!"

"Scary..." Anna said as she and Seri hid behind Kate and Tacey, peeking every once and a while, before ducking back.

William slowly inched to peek over Angel's shoulder, before twisting around to look straight at Jesse. "Does this always happen?"

"Yes," Jesse said dryly. "You'll get used to it."

Mason looked increasingly interested in the game the longer the five played. "Where can I buy the game?"

"Mason, if you're going to use that game for your murder stories, I'm not buying the game for you."

"Aww... : ("

"COME CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!"

"DON'T TEMPT HER!"

"GILL. AIDEN. MAYA. SAVE ME."

"Angel is ten feet away armed with a hatchet so I don't think so-"

"HA."

"GODDAMMIT, I'M DEAD."

"One down, three to go! Come here you three! Want to join your friend?"

"This is why you shouldn't challenge Angel on Dead By Daylight." Olivia sighed as her friend mercilessly went after the three.

"GOTCHA."

"And the reason why you shouldn't play with her as The Killer."

"NOOO!"

 _Ten minutes later._

Angel sat back, smirking in victory. "Merciless Killer... Fantastic."

Robin stared at her with dead eyes. He then lifts up his arm... and gave her the finger.

Angel snorted violently at the look on Robin's face, "Just so you know, I switched from The Hag to The Huntress on purpose because I knew what you were planning to do."

"...oh fuck you."

Raven snorted with laughter and patted her brother on the shoulder. "This is why you should stop challenging people in DBD."

Ann smiled and sat up and opened her mouth.

The lights went out.


	3. Run

As soon as the lights went out, it was chaos.

"AHHH!"

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

"WHO TURNED OFF THE LIGHTS?"

"WHO'S THERE?"

"PANICPANICPANICPANICPANICPANICPANICー"

"Jace, please calm downー"

"PANICPANICPANICPANICPANICPANICPANICー"

"OWW!"

"Sorry! Sorry!"

"RIN! WATCH OUT!"

 _BANG!_

"AHH!"  
 _  
_"JESUS CHRISTー"

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?"

"Oh, Irene... oh Irene..."

"SOMEONE TURN ON THE LIGHTS NOW!"

"I GOT IT! I GOT IT!"

The lights went on.

"OH MY GOD!"

"ADRIAN!"

Raven and Ann screamed in horror, the former sprinting over to Musa, who was wide-eyed, pale, and staring at the ground, and kneed down. On the ground, was Robin, covered in blood and knocked out cold.

"Adrian! Oh my god, Adrian..." Raven screamed out, checking for a pulse as her hands tremble. "He's breathing! He just got shot in the stomach!"

"I think I can heal him!" Kate said as she runs over and hovered her hands over Robin. The wound started glowing brightly.

"Alright," Angel snarled, looking around, "who has a gun?!"

"Don't look at us!" William protested. "I got a sword! Not a gun!"

"He's right," Tacey said shakily, "Ann said she scanned all of us for weapons when we first come in a few minutes ago before you woke up. There's no way any of us could shot Robin because most of us have rapiers, swords, spears, and bows!"

"Then someone here's a liar!" Jace growled, "Right, _ANN?_ "

"Adrian..." Ann sobbed. She couldn't speak anymore. She was staring at Robin's motionless body in horror.

"Why would the hostess just shot her own assistant?!" Kate snapped.

"To drive the blame away from her before she murders us all!"

"You're delusional!"

"ENOUGH!" Angel barked, causing all of them to jump. "We all need to just calm down and breathe."

"But someone still has a gun!" Seri said fearfully.

"We'll find out who it is," Angel said soothingly, "I'm sure..."

"But what if Annー"

"Jace, there's no way Ann could have shot Robin." Tacey interrupted Jace forcefully, "The bullet landed in front of Robin's stomach. Ann was standing a few feet to the right _behind him_. She couldn't have done it."

Olivia narrowed her eyes, "Which reminds me... when did Robin got in front of Musa?"

Silence...

"Olivia's right," Petra said softly, "Robin was sitting next to Gill before the lights went out. I think I heard someone running past me while the lights were out."

"Robin was the one who shouted that warning before the gunshot too," Angel pointed out, "I heard him perfectly. It was his voice."

"Me too," Musa said shakily, "I heard his warning and was about to step away when the gunshot happened, and I heard him land on the ground."

Lukas turned to Raven, "Raven, does Robin have anything special or unique that makes him stand out? Particularly in the eyes?"

"...yes," Raven said quietly, "He has night vision. He can see well in the dark."

That clicked it.

Musa was the original target of the person who shot Robin.

Robin must have spotted someone entering the room from the right and pulling out a gun. The person aimed it at Musa and Robin jumped in front of her and got shot instead.

Jesse checked around. Everyone was in the middle, watching Aiden, Maya, Gill, Robin, and Angel play Dead By Daylight, while Ann was further away, slightly to the left.

It was apparent that nobody in this room shot Robin.

Before anything could be said, an eerie giggle pierced the air, causing a shiver down their spine.

A woman in a black hoodie entered the right doorway, eerie gold eyes glowing in the darkness of her hood. "Evening everyone." She pulls out a gun, smiling.

...

"EVERYONE SCATTER!" Raven screamed, scooping up her brother and running out of the room.

They may have outnumbered her, but Raven was not taking any chances.

Ariza bolted, grabbing Mason and Ann and sprinting out of the room. William, Tacey, and Kate went next and went the other way, while Lukas and Jesse ducked under the woman and run away. Jace, Olivia, Axel, and Petra all went together and sprinting away from the woman. Angel felt someone grab her arm (which turned out to be Seri) and drag her away with Anna.

The woman laughed and followed one of the groups, reloading her gun.

* * *

"*pant* *pant*" Angel panted as they continue running, their hurrying footsteps echoing through the hall.

"Come on!" Anna shouted. "I think there's a large storage room to the left!"

 _BANG!_

Angel bit back a shout of pain when she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder, forcing herself to continue running.

"Angel!" Anna and Seri shouted, worried for the teenager.

"I'll fine!" Angel grit her teeth at the pain in her shoulder, looking over her shoulder and shouting in alarm when she saw the woman in the hoodie chasing after them.

 _BANG!_

"ACK!" Angel shrieked, dodging another bullet.

"Why is she chasing us?!" Anna shouted fearfully, who had looked over her shoulder and saw the woman as well.

"I don't know. I don't know!"

If the woman aimed for Angel, and she was chasing them... Angel gritted her teeth. She was the target this time. Fantastic. "We need to split up! Anna, you and Seri go together and run as far away from her as possible! I'm going to try to juke her!"

"Wha-?! We can't just leave you behind!" Seri protested. They may have just met Angel, but they can't just leave her behind to die.

"Seri's right—you'll die if you stay behind!" Anna agreed, causing a sigh to escape from Angel's mouth. This was harder than she thought...

"I'll be fine! I've played Dead By Daylight, Until Dawn and Friday the 13th The Game enough times that I know what to do!" Angel smiled, ignoring the pain in her shoulder. "Let's have a deal! If I found you two without any injuries other than my shoulder, everything's okay! We can get out of here and report this lady to the police! If I got another injury, feel fine to kill me! Not literally of course!"

Seri frown, "O-Ok! Just be careful!"

"I will be if you two getaway! Just go! Go! Go! Go!" Angel shouted, dodging another bullet.

Seri bit her lip and hesitantly nodded before she and Ann turn a corner and ran away while Angel went straight ahead.

* * *

 _She_ was impossible to outrun.

Angel tried everything.

And surprise, surprise! It didn't work.

Angel panted as her footsteps echoed through the hall, ducking down to dodge another bullet and hid behind a few boxes, breathing heavily as footsteps came from around a corner.

"Angelina~" _Her_ voice rang out, "Come out~ Don't you want to join your friend?" Oh great, now she was using Angel's Killer catchphrases while playing Dead By Daylight.

Angel held her breath and stayed absolutely still, clenching her bleeding shoulder. Don't move. Don't move a freaking muscle. Don'tmovedon'tmovedon'tmovedon'tmovedon'tmove- oh god, _she's_ right next to-

"Hmm... You're not here... But don't worry, I'll find you." Footsteps walk away and Angel relaxed a tiny bit. Creeping out of her hiding spot, she ran away, turn a corner and-

 _BANG!_

"AHH!" Angel screamed when she felt a sharp pain in her leg, causing her to fall down.

"Found you~" _She_ appeared out of nowhere, smirking as her eerie gold eyes glowed. "Now let's play!"

 _'How the fuck did she got here so fast?!'_ Angel internally screamed as she got up and limp away. _'I didn't even_ hear _her footsteps!'_ And Angel has very good hearing.

 _BANG!_

"ACK!" Angel dodged another bullet, tightening her grip on her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder and saw _her_ catching up. _'..fuck it.'_ With _her_ steadily catching up to her, Angel was forced to run on her injured leg. She held back her cries of pain that threatened to escape from her mouth as she ran.

Petra is definitely going to kill her after this. And Anna and Seri. Probably.

Angel looked over her shoulder again and noticed she had lost _her_ for now and darted into a closet and sat down behind the door, the pain in her leg stronger and the bleeding never stopping. _'Perhaps running with an injured leg is a bad idea...'_ Angel grimaced, staring at her blood-covered hand in the darkness.

Footsteps approached and opened the door, Angel let her hand fall into her lap, holding her breath and tensing up.

"Where are you, Angelina?" _She_ giggled, "Come on. I just want to play a game!" Footsteps stopped.

Angel shook silently, gritting her teeth and listening to her rapid heartbeat.

 _Bah-thump bah-thump bah-thump bah-thump_ ー 

"Found you!"

Fuck.


	4. The Fearful Annoucement

"Darn it. I can't heal the bullet wounds!"

"I'm going to try to take out the bullets. Then try to heal her again."

Angel almost let out a small cry of pain when she felt pain in her shoulder. _Almost_. She was so used to pain now. It's just that gunshots are something she wasn't expecting.

"Got it! Kate, try to heal her again!"

"Alright!"

A soothing sensation went over Angel's body as the pain in her shoulder suddenly disappeared, relaxing her muscles. Angel wondered what it was. It was sorta like Ivor's healing potions.

"Her shoulder's all healed!"

"Ok! I'm going to take out the bullet in her leg."

Pain stronger than the one on Angel's shoulder appeared on her leg, causing a cry of pain to emit from her mouth.

"Guys, she's waking up!"

"Angel, calm down! The pain will go away soon!"

The blonde open her eyes, allowing brown, black, and red entered her blurry vision before pain shot up on her shoulder again, flinching her leg away. "Agh!"

"Shoot! I can't remove the bullet! She keeps moving her leg away!"

"I see her MP3 player peeking out. Maybe I can use her music to try to calm her down and focus on it instead of the pain."

'Numb' played in Angel's ears, relaxing her muscles as she focused on the music playing from her MP3 player.

"Look, she's a Linkin Park fan just like you, Kate."

"I'll celebrate that later, William. Tacey, is the bullet out yet?"

"Almost... Got it! Heal it now!"

"OK!"

The soothing sensation from before went over Angel's body again as her music slowly fade away, her vision clearing to show the relieved William, Kate, and Tacey standing over her. After a quick glance, she can deduce that she was in a guest room and laying on a bed.

"Wha..?" Angel groaned at William helped her sit up. "What happened?"

"We should be asking you!" William said, pointing at Angel's shoulder and leg. "We found you with your shoulder and leg shot and injured."

Angel frown and made a face. "Um..."

 _After a quick explanation._

"You ran on an injured leg?!" Tacey exclaimed, looking at the blonde's leg, then looking up again.

Angel grimaced. "It was a stupid idea, I know. Petra's definitely going to murder me. Um..." Angel glanced around. "How did you guys got me away from _her?_ "

* * *

 _Flashback~_

 _Pant, pant..._

 _Footsteps echoed through the hall as Kate, Tacey, and William ran through the hall, pants escaping from their mouths._

 _"Is she following us?" Kate panted, stopping to rest as she looks over her shoulder._

 _"Don't think so!" Tacey stopped to rest and looked over her shoulder as well. "I don't see her at all. I think we're safe!"_

 _Footsteps that weren't theirs echoed towards them._

 _"Spoke too_ ー _soon hide!" William hissed, pushing them all into a nearby closet and hiding behind the door, staying as silent as possible._

 _"Agh! Let me go!" A familiar voice as noises that sounded like a struggle came from outside as William peeked through a crack. "I swear, if you don't let me go right now, I will find all your clothes and dye them all the ugliest orange I can find!"_

 _"Angel's outside," William whispered, glancing back. "so is the woman from before."_

 _"Oh no, did she got caught?" Kate asked, shifting in the darkness._

 _"Seems like it," William muttered. All the sudden, a loud scream came from outside as William's face paled. He quickly and quietly closed the door and turned around._

 _"What happened?" Tacey asked frantically._

 _"The woman just hanged her on a meat hook and sliced her chest with a knife!" William muttered, cracking open the door again. "And if I'm right,_ she's _camp- yup,_ she's _camping."_

 _"Which means someone has to distract_ her _if we want to rescue Angel," Kate mumbled. "I'll go. I can outrun_ her _with my super speed."_

 _Tacey shook her head. "That won't work._ She'll _give up easily and catch us unhooking Angel from the meat hook. How about I go and distract_ her _?"_

 _"But Tacey-"_

 _"I'll be fine." Tacey smiled. "Don't worry about me."_

 _Kate bit her lip and nodded. "...okay."_

 _"Good luck." William smiled._

 _"Thanks." Tacey smiled back, before changing into a serious look. "Kate, heal Angel once we rescue Angel. William, you rescue her and run away before_ she _sees it. Then go to the room two doors from this closet and hide so I can find you."_

 _"Ok."_

 _Tacey got up, "I'll be right back." Then she opened the door and slipped outside and ran off.  
_  
 _Silence~_

 _CRASH!_

 _"What the-!? Get back here!"_

 _Two pairs of footsteps ran off and faded away. Kate quickly urged William to get out and rescue Angel, who quickly slipped out and move to the left, where he spotted Angel and_ her, following Angel's groans of pain to locate her.

 _"There you are..." He muttered, finding an unconscious Angel on the meat hook and hanging by her uninjured shoulder. "And now you're free." He quickly lifted the blonde off the hook and started looking for the room Tacey was talking about._

 _"William, over here!" William turned and saw Kate halfway out a door and waving at him. He ran over and shut the door and hid behind the bed inside as Kate started healing Angel's chest wound._

 _Ten minutes later, the door opened and shut, the two tensing at the sound and getting ready to run just in case it was_ her. _A step, and another step, then Tacey popped up above them. "Mission completed!" She grinned and dropped next to Wiliam._

 _"I can do without the heart-attacks, thanks." William exhaled from relief, placing a hand over his heart. "Can you not scare us?"_

 _"What do you want me to do without attracting_ her _attention?"_

 _William just sighed as Kate chuckled and move over to heal Angel's shoulder._

Flashback End~

* * *

Angel stared blankly at them, "She hang me on a meat hook."

"She did."

"She sliced my chest with a knife to make me bleed to death."

"Pretty much, yeah."

"She didn't want me to live so she started camping to make sure people can't rescue me."

"From what we saw, yeah."

Angel let out a loud groan and threw her hands in the air. "Why the hell does she want to kill me?!"

Kate made a face at the swear and open her mouth to answer when a familiar voice popped up from the TV behind the four. "Good evening everyone!"

Oh, fuck you.

 _She_ was forecasted on the TV, sitting in a chair, and was now wearing a long, black dress and a small purple cloak on _her_ shoulders, hiding her face. "My game with Angelina has unfortunately ended." _She_ pouted childishly. "So I decided to announce something! Let's play a Treasure Hunt. There is an item scattered somewhere in the lodge. Find it, you win. There are ten rounds and if you win at least 5 rounds, I'll leave you be. If you don't, I'll resume my game. This time, with all of you!" _She_ clasped her hands together and smiled daintily. "Please meet up in the living room to decide, I'll give you an hour! Buh-bye~" _She_ blew a kiss and waved as the TV switched off.

The other three immediately started chattering away while Angel sat there silently, staring at the screen.

Then static.

You blinked and press the button several times to try and fix the problem, but nothing was working at all. "What the...?"  
 **  
** _ **"The decision is now yours."**_ Ann's voice came from the TV, the TV itself showing a thinking Angel. _**"There are two choices that you can choose from. Either a.)**_ _"_ The screen switched to show the living room, with the words written in white 'Meet with the others.' _**"Go to the living room to meet with the others. Or b.)"**_ The screen switched again to show the door to the exit with the words written in white, 'Exit the lodge.' _"_ _ **Try to exit the lodge and get help."**_ The screen switched again to show both choices. _**"Choose wisely~"  
**_ _  
_ _ **What should you do?**_

 _ **a.) Go to the living room and meet with the others**_

 _ **or**_

 _ **b.) Try to exit the lodge and get help.**_

 _ **Choose wisely~**_


	5. The Beginning of the Hunting Games

You pick up the remote again and press on the choice you want to proceed the story.

 ** _Go to the living room and meet with the others._**

A tap on her shoulder snapped Angel out of her daze, and she turned around to see William, Kate, and Tacey standing there, frowning, "Hey, what do you think we should do?"

"I think we should meet with the others," Angel said automatically. "I want to see everyone's opinions on this. Plus, I want to see if everyone's okay or not."

"Good plan," Kate nodded, smiling.

Angel smiled and move towards the door and open it, looking around, before motioning for the others to follow her, and the four ran out of the room.

* * *

Upon arriving at the living room, Angel got jumped on by Anna and Seri and the two (gently) chewed her out for almost dying ( _she_ appeared on the living room TV and told them about Angel's injuries), then Petra joined in and forced Angel to never do that again... via slapping her in the face.

"In my defense, she was impossible to outrun," Angel grumbled, rubbing her cheek Petra had slapped. "And Jace, don't you dare say anything, I was hung on a meat hook and nearly bleed to death."

Jace closed his mouth when Olivia gave him a tired glare and raised his brow. "Dead By Daylight much?"

"You shut-"

"Enough," Lukas said, separating the two. "Please calm down, you two."

Jace furrowed his brow, "Lukas, we're stuck here while a crazy lady is out for our blood. How am I supposed to calm down?!"

"Jace-"

"Screw what that lady wants!" Jace stomped off. "I'm getting the hell out of here!"

"Jace!" Angel chased after him and after a pause, the rest followed.

 _SLAM!_

"WHY WON'T THE FUCKING DOOR OPEN!"

"What are you shouting about now?!" Kate shouted as she walked up to the room.

Angel growled and slammed her foot on the door. "The damn door won't freaking open."

"Let us try," Raven shoved past the others, with a recovered Robin by her side. The two quickly move forward abruptly and slammed their bodies against the door in an attempt to destroy it. It didn't even dent.

"No good." Musa grimaced as she kicked at the door. "It didn't even dent. Not even with A- Raven and Robin's combined strength."

Jace growled and twisted around. "You! You're the one who invited us here! Tell us how to get out!"

"Excuse me, I'm not stopping you!" Ann protested, waving her hands in front of her face. "The door should be unlockable from the inside!"

"Then why is the damn door not opening?!"

"How should I know?!"

"Jace. Stop," Angel said, annoyed. "Let's go back to the living room and discuss on how to escape."

Jace growled and clenched his fist. "Fine."

Jesse sighed at her twin brother and started leading him to the living room. "Come on, bro. Let's go."

"Alright."

"Trying to escape, I see..." As soon as they came back in the living room, s _he_ appeared on the TV, smiling. "Sorry, but I seal all the possible exits in the lodge. You can't escape until you find all the items."

Angel was quite tempted to flip her the bird but she knew it'll only get her in trouble.

"Now, it's been about an hour. Have you decided what to do?" _She_ giggled. "Well, you don't have a choice. You have to find those items whatever you like it or not!"

Okay, _she_ was starting to piss Angel off. She kept her mouth shut and glared at the ground but it seemed Jesse couldn't keep her mouth shut from her anger.

"And what if we don't find these items?" Jesse challenged, glaring at the screen, only to get even more pissed off when _she_ just stared blankly at her. "What if we went to find an escape instead?"

That was a big mistake apparently.

 _She_ only smiled daintily and snapped her fingers.

 _SNAP!_

Angel felt something close around her neck from behind. She blinked and reached up, feeling a shackle around her neck. A confused expression came over her face. "Wh-?!"

Before she can react any further, a strong pull around her neck dragged her backward and out the door as Angel's eyes widen and attempted to reach out to someone, _anyone_ , before she was dragged down the hall, screaming.

"NO!" Jesse ran forward and tried to grab Angel's hand, only to stumble when Angel was turned and nearly face planted if Lukas hadn't caught her.

Lukas pulled her up and ran after Angel, "Come on, we need to chase after her!"

The shackle had been linked to a long, silver chain that was dragging Angel through the hall as she screamed and clawed at the shackle around her neck the entire time. She was dragged under a trapdoor, through a tunnel, and at last, she was abruptly pulled up and was left dangling in mid-air, hovering over the ground. She grabbed at the shackle and pull herself up slightly so she can at least breathe, before looking around and finding herself in a room was that definitely not in the lodge before, and she knew because she ran all over the lodge while running away from _her._

"Angel!" Petra ran into the room along with the others. "Where are you?"

"Up here!" Angel lifted one hand and waved. Not surprising that they couldn't see her until they look up. She is pretty high up.

Petra's expression relaxed. "Thank Notch... Are you okay?"

"It's kinda difficult to breathe, but other than that, I'm alright!"

A giggle interrupted before Petra can say anymore. "You see, if you don't play this game, or didn't find the item within the time limit, one of your own will die." _She_ appeared on the TV as the ground below Angel opened up. "Angel here will be our victim this time. If you don't find the first item on time or refuse to, she will be dropped into a grinder and get chopped up like the mobs back at Soren's lab! Except her death would be a little more... brutal." _Her_ eyes glinted dangerously.

There spikes on the cobblestone blocks attached to the pistons that can pierce through you when you fall down the grinder, spikes on the walls so that if you were lucky enough to escape the pistons, you'll still get spikes ran through you. There were spikes _all_ over every surface in the grinder.

 _She_ wasn't kidding when death is going to be brutal in the grinder.

The screen suddenly closed in on _her_ face (which they _still_ can't see it) as she tilts up her head to think. "Well, unless she dies from asphyxiation before she falls into the grinder, but whatever!" The screen zones out as _she_ leans back and laughs. "As long as she dies, it's fun! Teehee!"

Angel stared at pistons slamming spiked covered cobblestone blocks together with a blank face, before saying very slowly, "Why the hell do you like killing so much?!"

 _She_ giggled, covering her mouth slightly. "I don't have a preference for killing, but hearing the screams of blonde girls is the best. Don't you think?"

"You son of a-!"

Angel shrieked when she was abruptly dropped, unintentionally cutting off Axel's sweat and feeling herself fall into the grinder, stopping literally centimeters away from the spikes. She quickly pulled her legs away from spikes but that obviously wouldn't work if she was dropped down again.

"Ah, ah, ah~ Say one more word and those spikes will run through her pretty little body." _She_ wiggled her finger at Axel, who growled and clenched his fist but didn't say anything. "Now, what will you choose? Your friend's life, or your freedom?"

Mason glanced at Angel's direction with an uncomfortable look and Tacey shifted slightly. Seri cling to Anna's arm as they stare up, while William, Petra, Robin, and Kate pull out their weapons in case _she_ tries anything. Ariza began cursing loudly at _her,_ only to be quickly shushed by Ann and Raven as they don't want to take any chances that Angel might die from anything that comes out of their mouths. Musa shifted uncomfortably as Olivia looked up, worried for her friend, while Jace and Axel growled, clenching their fists. Lukas frowned and glanced over to Jesse, who was frozen in place.

What will she choose?

Suddenly, static.

You blinked and sat up, slightly startled from the static.

 _ **"You did well."**_ Ann's voice came from the screen again, the screen itself showing Angel, William, Kate, and Tacey standing in front of a door, trying to open it. _**"In the previous chapter, had Angel proposed the idea to find the exit and get help, the four would have found all the exits sealed shut and were forced to go to the living room. Angel would have alerted Jace about the sealed exits, the antagonist would appear and happily confirmed what Angel said, and the events earlier will still happen."**_ The screen switched again.

You blinked and leaned closer to the screen, anxiously waiting for the choices and the outcomes to appear.

 ** _"Now, this time you have three choices that you can choose from._** **"** The screen changed to show Jesse standing in front of the grinder. _ **"Either a)"**_ The screen switched to show everyone, excluding Angel, searching around the lodge. _ **"Accept the deal and search for the first item. b)"**_ The screen switched again to show Angel falling into the grinder, _**"Refuse the deal and let Angel get crushed in the grinder. Or c)"**_ The screen switched yet again and showed everyone, including Angel, walking into the dorms. _**"Get one more night to decide and rest before searching for the first item in the morning."**_ The screen switched again to show all three choices. **_"Choose wisely~"_**

 ** _What should you do?_**

 ** _a.)_** _ **Accept the deal and search for the first item.**_ __

 _ **b.) Refuse the deal and let Angel get crushed in the grinder.**_

 _ **or**_

 _ **c.) Get one more night to decide and rest before searching for the first item in the morning.**_


	6. The Black Musical

You pick up the remote, and after nearly dropping it a few times you press the choice you want to proceed the story.

 _ **Accept the deal and search for the first item.**_

"Jesse?" Jesse snapped into attention and glanced over, feeling a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" It was Lukas, wearing a worried look on his face.

Jesse nodded and took in a shaky breath. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just blanked off there for some reason." She turns and faced the woman, her back straightening. "We'll find the items, just don't hurt her!"

 _She_ laughed and clapped her hands joyfully. "Yay!" Great, _she's_ copying PAMA- "Our game is starting! Now," _She_ sat up, smiling. "since I'm so nice-" Bullshit. " _-_ I'll hold off the games and let Angel go until tomorrow! And don't worry, she's still alive!"

Angel's motionless body (she passed out due to lack of oxygen) was suddenly pulled out of the hole, moved above Lukas and dropped right on top of him.

Lukas stumbled at the extra weight on his back but managed to keep his footing due to Angel being extremely light. _'She really needs to eat more."_ Lukas grimaced, remembering how thin Angel was.

"Here is the first item before you go to bed," _She_ clasped her hands together. "One of Olivia's earrings is somewhere in the lodge."

Olivia blinked and lifted up her hand to gently touch her ears, then gasped when she felt nothing in her left ear. "How did you-?"

"Find it in an hour, and I won't kill Angel!" _She_ said, ignoring Olivia completely, her glowing gold eyes glinting. "If you don't, I'll drag her back here and drop her in the grinder! Wouldn't that be fun?"

Musa frown as she got Angel off Lukas' back and started getting air back into her lungs, along with Tacey and Kate. "That isn't fun at all! We're watching someone getting killed in front of our eyes!"

 _She_ raised a brow and sat up. "Oh? So Rin _can_ stand up for someone! What a pleasant surprise!" Then _she_ snapped her fingers.

Musa frowns and opens her mouth to either yell at _her_ for using her real name or ask how did _she_ know her name, when something whizzed by her the side of her neck, creating a small pain in her skin. "?!" She slowly reached up and gently touched the side of her neck, then pull away to see blood on her fingers. "Wh-?!"

"It's cute to see Rin standing up for someone, really." _Her_ smile turned dark and murderous. _"_ But I don't like being treated badly. You're lucky that knife missed or you'll be dead right now."

They turn to check the wall behind Musa and saw that there was indeed a knife stuck on the wall. It _barely_ managed to touch. A few inches to the right and the knife would of straight up killed her.

"I was aiming for the center of Rin's throat but my aim's a little whacky today." _She_ sighed, tightening her arms around her chest. "Welp, I guess it'll teach you a lesson not to treat me badly! Good night everyone! The Black Musical signing out!" The screen switched off.

...well, at least they know _her_ name now.

Angel let out a loud groan, directing everyone's attention to her. "Agh..." She groaned as Ariza help her sit up. "What the hell happen?..." She blinked and take in a deep breath. "Oh, I can breathe again!"

"Yeah, _she_ was 'nice' enough to let you go and give us a night to rest when we agreed to search for the items." Lukas said, making quotations around 'nice'. He made a face. "Although _she_ didn't remove that shackle around your neck."

Angel reached up and touched her neck and scowl when she felt metal under her fingers. She shook her hair out of her face and said, "It's probably to drag me back here once you guys go out and search for the first item. Speaking of which, what is the first item anyway?"

"One of my earrings," Olivia said, brushing away a pigtail to show her left ear, "Still don't know how _she_ got it though. I wasn't aware of it until now."

"Sneaky bastard," Angel mumbled, before driving down with a scream and successfully dodging a knife heading her way, which promptly got stuck on the wall behind her.

"Oh ho ho! Good dodge!" The Black Musical's voice echoed, sounding amused and excited. "However, it won't miss next time, Angelina!" She giggled her annoying, dark, giggle before silence took over the room again.

Angel laid there on her stomach, her silver eyes wide and her face as white as sheets. "Holy shit," she breathed, shaking, "that was so freaking close!"

Jesse bends down and laid a hand on her back, before standing up again. "How about we go to our dorms and rest? I'm sure we're all exhausted."

It all comes down to them that they realized they were all exhausted and from what happened, they deserve a rest after what happened today. After running around the lodge to get away from The Black Musical, running after Angel, nobody can see why they can't sleep.

Kate suddenly yawned and collapsed on Tacey. The redhead stood up and swing Kate's arm around her shoulders. "Alright," she said quietly, "I should probably take Kate to her room. Healing takes a lot out of her." Then she turned and walks away. William followed, claiming to help as well.

"Hey," Anna turned and saw Seri poking her in the arm. "can you sleep in my room? I'm a little scared to sleep alone after today."

Anna blinked and smiled. "Sure."

Seri beamed and the two walked away, holding each other's hands, likely to go back to the dorms to rest for tomorrow. It was like they were sisters.

Ann silently brushed away a lock of hair, before walking away without a word. Mason and Ariza shared a look, then quickly followed her for unknown reasons.

Soon, everyone was heading to their rooms to rest. Petra decided to lead Angel to her room, ignoring her protests. She said, and Angel quote, "This lady here got shot in the shoulder and leg, hooked on a meat hook Dead By Daylight style, and was suspended in midair over a grinder. There's no way I'm going to leave her alone."

Angel couldn't argue with that and let Petra follow her. For now. After going inside and convincing Petra to not watch her sleep, the blonde flopped on her bed and fell asleep.

* * *

Ariza and Mason quietly entered the room, where the brunette was sitting at her desk with her back turned to them. "Is there any reason why you two would enter my room?" She asked without turning to them.

"You should know, Ranul," Mason said blankly, crossing his/her arms.

The brunette leaned back in her seat. After several moments of silence, she asked, "How did you know I'm Ranul?"

"The butterfly in your necklace is turning black." Ariza pointed out, putting a hand on her hip. "Remember? The necklace only _we_ can see?"

Their friend chuckled and turned around, revealing the black butterfly necklace for the first time. "Observant as always, Ariza." 'Ranul' smiled. "How are you doing by the way? Red went off to review on HCM just to talk to you after hearing what happened."

"Good to know even though it's only been a few days." Ariza chuckled. "How are the others doing by the way?"

"The chat's a little dead, but everyone's fine." Ranul smiled, waving a hand. "Red and Klavvy are the ones I'm not sure about, but yeah, everyone's fine."

"Good to know."

Mason cleared his/her throat, directing their attention to him/her. "There's another reason why we came here." His/Her eyes hardened. "The Black Musical."

Ranul hummed. "Ah yes, _her._ What about _her_? Other than the fact that she's a psychopath that loves to kill."

"I can tell she's not human," Mason said, ignoring Ariza's laughter. "With that distorted voice and unnatural gold eyes, I'm sure that's a telltale sign."

Ranul nodded, smirking. "You're right. _She_ looks like a human, but she's clearly not. More accurately, she is a Shadow Self, Mason."

"A what?"

"A Shadow Self is a being that represents a person's distorted desires and hidden feelings within," Ranul explained lazily. "I've seen those gold eyes before, I know when I see a Shadow Self. And you know what's the problem?"

She sat up, her eyes darkening as she said the words that made their blood run cold. **"We can't harm her. Only a specific group can, and we're not a part of that group."**


	7. The Search For Olivia's Earring

Static...

 _ **"I apologize for interrupting,"**_ Ann's voice came from the TV again. _**"But I have forgotten to announce the choice outcomes in the last chapter. In Chapter 5, if you had chosen B, everyone will head straight to their rooms and hear what the first item is in the morning. If you had chosen C, the first thing that will happen is obvious. Angel will die. The Black Musical will then hunt everyone down and drown them all in tubes."**_

You studdered. That is not a good way to go.  
 **  
** ** _"Now, let's continue, shall we?"_**

The screen turned back to normal.

"What do you mean we can't harm _her?_ " Mason asked, frowning. "And what is that group?"

"First off, normal people like you two can't harm Shadow Selves," Ranul said as she held up a finger. "As for me, I'll explain later. Secondly, that group possesses tamed Shadow Selves that can harm Shadow Selves. I do have one, but after an incident (which I do not want to talk about right now), I lost the ability to harm Shadow Selves."

"So we can't harm _her_ at all? Even with our powers?" Ariza asked with a frown on her face.

"Unfortunately."

Ariza let out a loud groan. "Great. What are we supposed to do now? We can't just let her do what she wants and let her get away with it!"

"Unless we get someone with a tamed Shadow Self, we can't do anything except search for the items in the lodge," Ranul said as she crossed her arms. _'Although I think we already found that someone.'_

"You _think_ we already found that someone?" Mason squinted at the brunette, suspicion clear on his face. "What do you mean by that?"

 _'Crap, I must have accidentally said that out loud-'_

"Yes, Ranul," Ariza said slowly, raising a brow. "what do you mean?"

"Um..." The necklace around Ranul's neck switched from black to purple over and over as she mumbled under her breath, before the butterfly finally settled on purple, signaling them that Ann was now in control. She stood up and smiled at her friends, "It's getting late." She said calmly. "We have a long day of searching, so we're going to need some rest."

"Ann, when did you- nevermind that. What do you mean that we already found that someone?" Ariza frown as Ann headed for her bed and collapsed on it.

"Go to sleep, Razzie-chan," Ann mumbled, waving her hand at them.

Mason frown, hearing her snigger into her pillow. "Ann-"

"Go to sleep, Mase."

"Ann-"

"FOR FUCK'S SAKE, GO TO SLEEP ALREADY."

Ann is scary when she's sleepy apparently.

* * *

Olivia blinked awake, staring at the ceiling and finding herself very thirsty. As she slowly eased herself off her bed and got outside to get a glass of milk, Olivia noticed lights coming from Angel's room, and frowned.

When emotional, the youngest teen of the New Order would find something that can harm her, and use it on her skin. Once, she dug her long nails into her skin so hard, it created small, red, bumps on her skin. When they found out, they cut her nails and forced gloves on her hands to make sure she won't do it again.

Forgetting her thirst, Olivia walked over to her friend's room and gently open the door, and peek inside. Angel's gold blankets were on the ground, likely from being kicked off due to nightmares. Her _Harry Potter_ books and notebooks were scattered on the ground, something Angel would throw a fit if she saw it like this. Her books and notebooks were very precious to her, ruin them, and she will make you go through the worst punishment in the world. But that wasn't important. Right now, Olivia needs to find Angel.

Olivia walked over to the bathroom and peek inside, seeing Angel holding a bloody switchblade in her hand and gliding it across her skin. The dark-skinned girl reached out and gently took the switchblade from her hand, making the blonde stiffen and slowly turn to face her friend.

"I thought you stopped ages ago..." Olivia sighed, heading over to the shorter girl and taking her wrist, looking at the blood. "Your mother and father wouldn't be pleased if they were still alive."

Angel glanced away. "...sorry, I had a nightmare...

Olivia's eyes soften. "What was it about?"

"Rueben..."

Olivia stiffen. As an animal lover, Angel was very fond of Rueben when he was still alive and was devastated when he died.

"I...I saw him being tortured by... dark figures. He was whipped over and over and squealing for help, for Jesse, for Axel, for you... anyone who can help... but no one came..."

"Oh, Angel..." Olivia sighed gently pull Angel into a hug, feeling Angel stump into her arms. The blood remained on the bathroom floor, but they can clean it up later.

"...come on..." Olivia pulled away after a moment or two. "I'm going to get you some bandages. Petra will be pissed if she saw the blood on your sweater."

Angel numbly nodded and walked away, ignoring her friend's concerned look as she walked out of her room. She doesn't need the concern right now. She just wants to get the hell out of here.

* * *

"There." Olivia finished wrapping the bandages. "That should do. I'm going to keep the switchblade just in case you start cutting again. I'm not taking any risks after today."

Angel stared at her bandaged wrist and nodded again. "Alright."

 _CRASH!_

Olivia let out a very annoyed sigh when she heard crashes from down the hall. "That must be Jace and Axel. I'll be right back, Angel. Go get some food okay?"

"Alright..." Angel mumbled finding herself alone again. She sighed and headed to the kitchen to get some food. Or, at least that's what she was going to do.

"Good morning, everyone! It's time for the search!"

Angel's eyes widened. "Wait, what?!"

Well, this is going to be fun.

* * *

Angel groaned in dismay when she found herself dangling over the grinder again. _She_ laughed as everyone entered the room, clapping her hands eagerly. "Alright, let's go over the rules! Rule #1, you may split up into teams to search for Olivia's earring. However, you can only have 3-4 people in each people."

Well, not counting Angel, there are twenty people in the lodge, so it shouldn't be a problem-

"Rule #2, the owner of the item is not allowed to search. Which means Olivia has to wait here until her earring is found."

Oh, you son of a b***h-

Olivia's jaw dropped. "Wh-? Why?

"That, I will explain later! Sorry, Olivia!"

Olivia bit her lip and glanced away, but didn't say anything because any protest she has in mind right now might get her killed.

"Anyway, Rule #3, you are not allowed to use your powers until it's five or fewer minutes away from the time limit. However... if you do use your powers before the allowed time..." A strange glint appeared in _her_ eyes. " **I will drag you off and drown you in tubes in front of your dearest friends.** "

Every single person in the room turned a few shades paler than their original skin color. Drown in tubes? What kind of mind does The Black Musical have?

Raven grimaced and glance away, her royal blue eyes flicking to crimson for a split second, before returning back to normal. Robin casually messed around with his hair, but it was obvious he was trying to hide his crimson eyes. Noticing that his hair won't hide his eyes, he stops messing with his hair and looks at the ground instead.

Kate fidgets a bit and tugged on her glove slightly, a look of discomfort coming over her face, while Anna played with her necklace nervously. Seri turned away and crept behind the second nearest person next to her, which happened to be Ariza, who was currently mumbling swears under her breath. Ann flinched the tiniest bit, and Musa glanced away, tugging slightly at her black fluffy jacket.

It was obvious who had powers and who doesn't by now.

"Hm? What's with the long looks? It's not like they're going to be the only ones who get punishments. You all will get them if you break any of the rules."

Angel would have happily flipped _her_ off if it wasn't for the fact that she was hanging over a grinder and will drop inside it in any minute.

"Anyway, the reason why you can't use your powers is that Seri, Kate, and Musa all have super-speed. It wouldn't be fair if just them can't use their powers. So I set the rule for all of you! Now, Rule #4, once you found the item, you must bring it back to the owner. Even if you pick it up and hold it for a while, it won't count as the item being found. You have to give it to the owner. See why the owner is not allowed to search?"

Olivia just fidgeted a bit.

"Rule #5, you are not allowed to destroy the house or anything to cause destruction. Our host here can't replace everyone you all destroy for your information."

Ann just shifted uneasily.

"Rule #6, you may use your weapons to fight as there are enemies scattered around the lodge to give you a challenge. But don't worry, they won't try to kill you during breaks/intermissions."

...are you serious right now?

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL THEM?!" Angel roared from above, sounding extremely pissed. Well, you would be if you found out someone was trying to kill your friends.

"Don't worry, they won't actually kill your friends, that won't be fun. No, the weapons they have are enchanted so no matter what they do, they can't kill you." _She_ waved _her_ hand dismissively. "Stop worrying. Now, I'm sure that's all the rules. Searching starts on 3..."

"2..."

"1..."

"GO!"

Everyone scattered. They didn't even need to pause to pick out the teams, they just automatedly grouped up and ran out of the room. Jesse found herself with Axel, Petra, and Lukas, with Jace grouping with William, Kate, and Tacey.

She swore to herself as they open door after door to find empty rooms. They only have so much time to find Olivia's earring, yet so little. "Where is it, where is it?" Jesse mumbled to herself as they searched through one of the rooms that weren't empty.

" _She's_ expecting us to find the tiniest thing in the freaking world," Petra growled as she pulled a drawer open and started looking through it. "We need much more time than th-"

"ACK!"

Jesse twisted around, noticing a certain someone was missing... "Lukas, where did you go?" She asked, looking for her boy- I mean friend.

"Down here." A slight tap from below, making Jesse look down and blink, then bend down and gently lifted the wooden plank to reveal a sheepish Lukas sitting in a hole, rubbing the back of his head.

Jesse blinked again, looking very bemused. "Lukas, how did you get down there?"

"Beats me, I walked over to the bed and fell through the floor," The blond said, shrugging. "The wooden plank must have flipped over or something. At least I got this." He lifted his closed fist and opened it, revealing Olivia's earring inside his palm.

Jesse couldn't believe their luck. Thirty minutes in the 'game' and they already found Olivia's earring. "I can't believe it!" She said excitedly. "Lukas, I could kiss you!"

She blinked when she saw Lukas turned completely red in the face after she said that. Did she do something wrong? Why were Axel and Petra snickering? "Is something wrong?" She asked, curiously.

"No, no, everything's fine," Lukas said, trying to ignore the sniggers from Axel and Petra. "Just get me out of here."

"Alright..." Jesse got on one knee and helped him out of the hole and picked up the earring in Lukas's palm, still unaware of what she just said. "Come on, we need to get to the grinder room. We only have thirty minutes-"

"Ten more minutes, everyone! Beter hurry and find that earring and bring it to Olivia!"

The run to the room with the grinder is thirty minutes away.

Jesse swore under her breath.

"GO! GO! GO!" Jesse shouted, which made them immediately bolted out of the room after the announcement. If they were lucky enough, they could run into either Seri, Kate, or Musa when it's five minutes away from the time limit, and they can use their super speed to race to the grinder room.

That's what Jesse thought until Axel and Petra pull them back to hide.

"Axel, Petra, wh-?"

"SHH!" Petra smacks a hand over Jesse's mouth, looking over her shoulder. "Be quiet, I heard something earlier."

...

...

Footsteps echoed as Petra quickly pushed them into a corner, an eerie lullaby following after it. A woman came out of the shadows, clutching an ax and a hatchet, and wearing a bunny mask and bloody clothes. Jesse sucks in a breath from surprise. The Huntress; the killer Angel played in Dead By Daylight. How did she get here?

The Huntress looked around for a second, before continuing on, not spotting the four hiding in the shadows. They're safe. For now at least.

"What is The Huntress going out of the freaking game?" Axel hissed, creeping out of his hiding spot.

"I don't know," Lukas said, looking around, "but what I do know if that we need to get the hell out of here before she comes back."

Footsteps came back.

"Less talk, more running- RUN!" Jesse hissed, breaking off into a run, her friends following her as expected, stopping when the hall split into three paths.

"Shit! Where should we go?!" Petra swore and turn to Jesse for help, seeing as she was usually the leader of the group. "Jesse, it's your call!"

A bead of sweat went down Jesse's forehead. "Um..."

Footsteps grew louder.

"Come on Jesse!"

Footsteps began to run.

"Jesse!"

"Um..."

 ** _Where should Jesse go?_**

 ** _Right  
Left  
Straight Ahead_**

 ** _Choose wisely~_**


	8. Right is Her Choice

_**Right**_

Jesse shrieked as she duck to dodge a hatchet, before spinning on her heel and ran to her right. Judging by the light footsteps behind her and not the heavy ones belonging to The Huntress, the others were following.

Why did Jesse go for her right? Who knows. Maybe it's because she saw Seri's ponytail disappearing in the corner of her eyes.

As Jesse ran, she saw the hall splitting into three paths again and narrowed her eyes, seeing Seri's ponytail disappearing in the right again. This time, she knows where to go, and that is...

 ** _Right again  
Left  
Straight ahead_**

 ** _Choose wisely~_**


	9. Safe

**AN: I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING IN A MONTH.**

 **I WAS LAZY.**

 **AND BUSY.**

 **SORRY FOR THE SHORT CHAPTER.**

 **Right again**

Jesse turned to her right and charged forward, her eyes set on Seri as The Black Musical announced, "Five more minutes, hurry up!"

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

"Seri!" Jesse called out, making the brunette jump. "Can... can you take this to Olivia?" She panted, holding the earring out.

Seri's eyes lit up when she saw the white earring laying in Jesse's palm. "You found it!" She said, catching the attention of Anna, Raven, and Robin. "Okay, I'll take it to Olivia!" She took the earring and rush off in a flash of white.

Not even a second later, there was another announcement, "Seriblaze has handed the earring to Olivia! Congratulations! You won! Everyone, please head back to the grinder room!"

Jesse sighed from relief and started walking back, wanting nothing more than to lay down and sleep for days.

* * *

As soon as a coughing Angel was let down from the air, her friends flung their arms around her neck一yes, Jace too一accidentally cutting off her airline and suffocating her again.

"A-Air!..." She choked out, "Air!"

Backing away to let Angel breathe again, they watched as Angel coughed and took in deep breaths, trying to get some air back into her lungs. Olivia rubbed her hand from when Seri barged in and literally slammed her earring into her hand ("Sorry!" Seri said as everyone rushed in).

"Come on, you," Petra said as Angel got air back into her lungs. "Let's go to the living room so we can rest. Might as well take advantage of the intermission."

The blonde nodded and let the redhead drag her to the living room

Static.

 _"Regardless of what you choose near the end, you'll still end up with someone who has super speed,"_ Ann's voice announced from the screen. _ **"Right; you'll get Seri as shown here. Left; you'll get Kate. Straight ahead; you'll get Musa. Next time won't be easy. I would explain more, but I'm a little lazy today."**_

You forced yourself no to laugh as the static cleared out.


	10. First Intermission

"Remind me to never provoke a psychotic murderer ever again," Angel mumbled into the cushions as Petra patted her back. "I don't feel like being hanged over a grinder again."

"Noted," William said as he glanced at the red mark around Angel's neck.

Lukas coughed, directing all attention to him, "Since The Black Musical mentioned some of us have powers, and since we're working together to prevent any deaths and can't afford any secrets, can some share their power if they have it?"

Angel rolled on her side and raised her hand, "I have the power to breathe underwater and swim much faster." She said.

Raven shared a look with her twin brother, but after Angel shared, she stood up. "I'm a succubus, a demon who feeds on… sexual energy…" She said the last part very quietly. But everyone can hear her anyway. "Robin's an incubus."

Seri volunteered next after the shock of having two demons in the same room as them passed. "I have superspeed and the ability to summon weapons made out of light."

Kate closed her eyes for a few seconds, then spoke up, "Superspeed, invisibly, healing, etc… I have the power of dreams basically."

"I can summon pink crystals to use as shields, weapons, and many more," Anna said as she adjusted her glasses.

"I have Literary Manipulation, which means I can create, shape, and manipulate any kind of literary, including their physical forms. In short, I can change small events with a simple flick of a pen." Ariza said, making a small face. "But for some reason, after The Black Musical arrived, my powers aren't working."

"It's probably because your powers are the most interfering out of all of us," Ann pointed out. "She probably did something to cancel your powers. Anyway," She cleared her throat. "I have Aura Manipulation, which means I can increase my natural abilities, attach and repel other auras, sense auras, and project it."

Musa bit her lip, "I'm a werewolf," She said, wincing when everyone gasped at that. "As well as the power to manipulate sound."

"A werewolf?" Seri asked fearfully. "You mean the ones who turn on a full moon?"

"Yes, but her species is a bit more, ah, mild than the ones you hear about," Ann said quickly, wanting to defend her assistant or friend or whatever she is to her. "Both are the same in a way, only that her kind has ears and a tail. Musa, would you care to show us?"

Musa wrinkled her nose, and black, fluffy, wolf ears and tail appeared in a poof of smoke, then vanished a second later.

"Musa doesn't really like what she is, it reminds her of her family," Ann said when she heard unspoken question why Musa vanished her ears and tail so quickly. "Now, yes, she does turn on a full moon, but she's quite harmless in here. This place was enchanted by Raven and Robin to make sure she doesn't accidentally kill anyone. Just be careful when you get her angry, she'll rip you apart."

"How reassuring..." Mason mumbled to himself.

Ariza narrowed her eyes, "Wait, wasn't two nights a full moon?"

"Yes, why 一 oh." Olivia blinked, realization coming over her face. "Ohhh…"

"Yeah, that might explain the growling and snapping we heard that night." Tacey nodded, making Musa flushed and curse her werewolf status under her breath.

Ann chuckled and turned her attention to Mason, "Mase, I believe you, too, have powers." She said to her friend.

"Oh right, forgot about them. Haven't used them in a while." Mason sat up. "I have Paradox Manipulation, which means I can disobey the rules of logic and disrupt reality to achieve illogical facts."

"What does that mean?" Axel asked, looking a bit confused, as well as some of the others.

"I can burn someone by throwing water at them," Mason explained. "I can also cool someone down by setting them on fire."

"Woah, okay, no need to give the last example," Angel wrinkled her nose and went a little cross-eyed.

Aiden glanced around, "So… I guess that's everyone? With powers I mean?"

"I think so," Angel lifted her head from the cushions and sat up, "Now, I'm going to play DBD to let out some energy, as Survivor I mean." She said quickly when she noticed the pale faces of the Blaze Rods because they probably did not want to face another Killer. "I don't think I can play Killer after today. Anyone want to join me?"

Robin made a face at her, "Not me. The last time I played with you, the lights went out and I got shot."

"Asshat, you got shot because you decided to be an idiot and tried to save me," Musa hissed quietly to Robin, who winced in response.

"Fair enough. I don't blame you." Angel said, who obviously haven't heard Musa. 

"We can," Aiden said, gesturing at Maya and Gill. "I want to get all of this off my mind for a while."

Angel nodded at him, "Okay, let's play then."

* * *

"Why did I spawn in the dungeons?" Maya asked, narrowing her eyes. "I'm getting the hell out of here. This place is creepy."

Angel shrugged and answered her friend's first question, "There are those who are lucky and those who are unlucky in life."

"You're just saying that because you spawn next to a generator."

Angel rolled her eyes at her, "It's true."

"Be quiet you two, I want to keep a lookout for the Killer. It might be Freddy. Might." Aiden said, shuddering when he remembered accidentally bumping into the new Killer.

Angel shuddered as well. "Right. Everyone, keep a lookout, alright? And listen carefully for that stupid song."

Just as she finished that, Maya let out a loud shout and began slamming the controllers. "Oh, shit 一 I found him! Club guy, bell一"

"Wraith?" Angel offered gently, but Maya didn't hear her.

"一invisible, boop da boop man!"

"...what?" Aiden snorted after a moment of silence. "Maya, what on Earth?..."

"Boop da boop man…?" Angel asked, sounding like she wanted to sit back and roar with laughter like what everyone else was doing.

"In my defense, he popped right in front of me and I panicked 一 Get away from me you crazy bastard!"

Angel laughed and finished the generator she was working on. "Alright, alright, I'm going over to help you now, haha! Just tell me where you are, heh."

"Stop laughing at me 一 you're not helping!"

* * *

"Okay, I think he's gone now. Pff - boop da boop man," Angel laughed to herself and ignored the icy glare from her friend.

Maya stick out her tongue at her, "Very funny, Angie. How many generators are left, by the way? I was too busy running away from the Wraith to keep track."

"Don't look at me, I didn't look either."

"Obviously, you didn't. You were trying to save me."

"We fixed up two more generators while you were busy, and Angel fixed up one before she left to save you, so two left," Aiden answered.

"Aw, sweet! Two more! We'll win if we keep this up! Let's do this!"

"Blaze rods!"

Angel snorted quietly as she fixed up another generator. Good to know that everyone can have high spirits after what happened.

"Shit! I potatoed!"

"Run before he gets to you!"

* * *

"Woo!" Gill threw his arms in the air and spun around. "We survived the terrifying boop da boop man!"

Maya picked up a cushion and chucked it at him, scowling. "Only I get to use that name!" She declared.

"Children, all of you." Angel shook her head at the pillow fight that just began. "Honestly."

"Are you calling yourself a child?" Aiden asked with a huge grin.

Angel raised her eyebrow that made Aiden back away quickly, his grin falling off. Angel was going over to a cushion to pick it up when the bell dinged loudly, startling all twenty-one of them.

Seri glanced at the clock, and her smile fell off. "It's midnight… Maybe we should go to sleep to prepare for the next 'treasure hunt'."

Angel's look fell off as well. From the excitement, she had forgotten about the situation they were in. "...right. Let's go to sleep."

Kate glanced at William and Tacey, then, with a grim face, she got up to her feet and started walking back to her room. Everyone followed after her, terrified for tomorrow.

Just who will be picked to be the bait for the hunt tomorrow? What deadly trap would be used next?

Whatever trap it was, they could die if they didn't find the item in time.

Angel exhaled sharply as she closed the door to her room and slide down, hiding her face in her arms, then voiced the question that had been on her mind since the whole Hunt began.

"Will we be able to get out of here?"

 ** _"Perhaps…"_**

Startled, Angel lifted her head, and wide, silver eyes met glowing, gold ones.

 ** _To be Continued..._**


	11. The Search For Robin's Bow and Arrows

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" The Black Musical was once again displayed on TV like the last few times they've seen her. "Welcome to a new day and a new game! Are you ready to play?"

A few selected others only narrowed their eyes and curtly nodded. Nobody will die in this round, they'll make sure of it. Hopefully.

"Excellent! Now, if you're about what's the missing item for this round," The Black Musical's gold eyes gleamed mischievously. "Check your pockets for any missing possessions."

"My bow and arrows!" Robin abruptly shouted as he furiously searched his pockets for his bow and arrows. "I can't find them anywhere! I had it a few minutes ago!"

"How on Earth did she take your bow and arrows without any of us noticing?..." Raven asked, looking and sounding very shunned and confused.

The Black Musical ignored Raven's question and continued on, "That's right! Adrian's bow and arrows are the missing items this round! Here's what it looks like!"

The Black Musical was quickly replaced by a long, crimson red, archer bow with silver string, and a few arrows in a green quiver.

The bow was beautifully carved, with pieces of silver forming around the middle where the arrow was supposed to shoot, and emeralds were glistening all over the bow. The arrows' fletchings were gold and the nock was red, with the arrowhead dangerously sharp. Rubies were also shining on the end of the arrows. (I'm bad at descriptions, I'm sorry)

Despite the situation, Olivia and Lukas couldn't help but admire the bow and arrows, as their bows are plain and have no jewels on them.

"Now, as for the victim this round…" Everyone stiffened. "Let's sit back and see who it is, should we?"

"What's happening?!" Raven shouted as tentacles made out of shadows rose around her, making every head turn to her. "What on Earth are these一? AAAHHH!"

The tentacles lunged at the brunette, who threw her arms up instinctively. That was completely useless since the tentacles proceeded to drag her into the ground, Raven's terrified face was the last they saw before she disappeared completely.

"ANNA, NO!" Robin screamed, lunging towards the ground Raven was just standing on seconds before and started banging  
his fists bloody. "ANNA!"

"Oh, looks like the shadows choose poor Annabelle~," The Black Musical said cheerfully. "Now, buckle up everyone, because we're in for a ride!"

Angel turned sharply, "Huh一!? Woah!"

"ANGEL!"

"OLIVIA!"

"AXEL!"

Jesse, Lukas, Petra, and Jace screamed as the tentacles wrap themselves around the mentioned three's waists and drag them away as they screamed.

"JESSE, WATCH OUT!"

"Huh?! AAAHHH!"

One by one, everyone was dragged away by the shadow tentacles to who knows where. The Black Musical laughed, then disappeared.

* * *

The tentacle dropped Angel roughly on the ground, earning a cry of pain from the new bruise that appeared because of the rough landing. She got up and took a quick look around, noting nervously that she wasn't in the grinder room.

She was the first to arrive, it seems. Of course, that changed when Olivia was dropped right on top of her, screaming.

"Oh, sorry Angel!" Olivia exclaimed as she gets off the younger girl, who just rubbed her head from where Olivia's elbow smacked her.

"Don't worry about it, I'm not even mad. I'm just glad it wasn't Axel." Angel shook her head and got up as everyone else came dropping in.

The Black Musical beamed as he appeared on another TV. "Hello, welcome to the Strangling Room!"

Robin looked rather like a vampire with how pale he is. Nobody blamed him. It was his sister The Black Musical was talking about.

"I hope you have a lovely ride, these shadows aren't really gentle at times." The Black Musical aimlessly brushed back her hair off her shoulders. "But enough about shadows, as you can see, Annabelle here is the victim of this game!" She gestured to the right.

Raven was pinned against the wall, viciously struggling to free herself from the ropes tiedaround her neck and limbs. The ropes were attached to five wheels around her in a circle. It looked rather strange, but they know it'll kill Raven in some way.

"Now, this time, you need to find Adrian's bow and arrows in an hour and bring it to Adrian in time. There are the usual obstacles and stuff, but if you fail to find the bow and arrows, the wheels will begin to turn and the ropes will pull on Annabelle's limbs and…" She trailed off and smile, letting someone finish for her.

She didn't need to wait long.

"The ropes will strangle her and her limbs will be torn from her body…" Jesse finished with a dry throat while everyone else looked on, horrified.

"Right on! One more thing I had to mention in the last game." The Black Musical smiled again. "Teams must be 3-4 members each. It may decrease if someone dies, but details." She brushed it off when everyone became even more horrified. "Which means one of you have to split from your team and go to one with the fewest members. You have five minutes to decide."

Angel looked around hesitantly

01001111 01110010 01100111 0110000101101110 01101001 01111010 0110010100100000 01110100 01100101 01100001 01101101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 10010010 01110011 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01111001 

Player: Angelina

Choose Team to Play

 **Bold: Dead** , Underline: Victim, _Italic: Item Holder_

Team 1: FULL

Members: Jesse, Axel, Lukas, Olivia

Team 2: FULL

Members: Kate, William, Tacey, Petra

Team 3: Two Spots Left.

NOTE: Ignore Raven and Robin since they're not in the games

Members: Anna, Seri, Raven, _Robin_

Team 4: FULL

Members: Musa, Ariza, Ann, Mason

Team 5: FULL

Members: Aiden, Maya, Gill, Jace

 **What team should Angel join?**

 **Choose Wisely : )**

 **To Be Continued...**


	12. Killers and Chainsaws

**Player Angelina is now in Team 3. Game Start!**

01010100 01100101 01100001 0110110101110011 00100000 01101111 0111001001100111 01100001 01101110 0110100101111010 01100101 01100100 0010110000100000 01101100 01100101 0111010010010010 01110011 00100000 0111000001101100 01100001 01111001 00100001

Angel felt a small tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Seri standing behind her, her brown eyes flickering to Anna, then back to her.

"Ermー" Seri nervously shuffled her feet. "Since Raven and Robin aren't on our team anymore, and since you can't join your friends because their team is fullー"

Angel raised an eyebrow. "You didn't ask Petra?"

"Well, she looks a bit intimidating, and you look a bit easier to approach so we were wondering if you can join our teamー"

Angel cut her off. "I'll join," She said softly.

Seri blinked and smiled. "Alright. Come join us." She said, leading Angel to Anna. "I hope we can do this. I don't want Raven to die."

"As long as we stay in the shadows and be sneaky, we'll be able to find Robin's bow and arrows quicker," Angel assured her as they approached Anna. "However, you need to be careful and watch your feet. Noise can attract the Killers."

"That'll be a bit of a problem," Anna said as the two stopped in front of her. "Both of us are a bit clumsy."

Angel waved it off. "I'll watch your step and tell you to move if needed. Don't worry."

Seri turned to see how the others are doing and laughed. "Look at Kate and Jace!"

Angel turned and let out a snort of laughter. Kate and Jace don't seem to get along very well. And that was an understatement. As soon as The Black Musical gave them time to sort out their teams, Kate went over to Jace and shoved him towards The Blaze Rods and, ignoring Jace's indignant squawks, exclaimed that if he wants to ditch them again, he can't join their team.

"They don't seem to get along very well," Seri remarked. "Not surprising since Kate dislikes jerks who judge her for what she likes."

The blonde teenager threw both of them a questioning look.

"When did that happen?"

"When you were sleeping, Jace insulted Linkin Park right in front of Kate's face," Anna said, remembering what happened the morning before The Black Musical's arrival. "She wasn't very happy about that."

Angel let out a long sigh. "Of course. Jace likes to annoy me when he's bored. and because I like Linkin Park, he insults it to get me riled up. That stopped working after a few weeks, so he picks on the next person who likes them."

"And that happened to be Kate…" Seri said they watched Petra join Kate, Tacey, and William. "He's kinda like Wilrus in a way."

Angel threw them another questioning look. "Who?"

"William's twin brother," Anna answered for Seri. "He's the complete opposite of William though. I think he called Linkin Park ' another boy band that all girls seem to be obsessed with' or something like that when Kate first met him. They've been at each other's throats ever since."

"They try to stop arguing because William tells them not to…" Seri cut in. "But it doesn't really break up the tension between them."

"Does this guy like explosions?" Angel asked flatly, remembering how Jace and Axel liked to blow up at least something seven times a day. Honestly, she was surprised everything in the lodge managed to last.

Seri and Anna exchanged an amused look, but before they could say anything about Wilrus, The Black Musical interrupted.

"Time's up!" The Shadow shouted. "Are your teams ready?"

"If you count angrily shoving someone into another team, then I supposed we're ready…" Angel muttered sarcastically under her breath.

The two standing beside her had to turn away to hide their laughter.

Thankfully, The Black Musical didn't hear her, as a chorus of agreements that went around the room blocked out Angel's muttered answer.

"Alright!" The Black Musical smiled. "Please stand inside the black circles on the ground. It will teleport you to random parts of the lodge to search. Go on!"

The three shared a look, before very hesitantly walking to the nearest circle, with everyone doing the same.

"Excellent! Let the game start in 3…"

Angel glanced over to Jesse, who had a dangerous glint in her eyes, and decided she rather not know the reason behind the glint.

"2…"

Seri took in a deep breath.

"1…"

Anna adjusted her glasses.

"GO!"

There was a flash of light, and every single team vanished from the room. 

* * *

The three got to work immediately after they landed in the basement ("I don't think the bow and arrows are in this room…" "Why do you say that?" "It's empty! And the boards aren't that loose…") and traveled from room to room, trying to find Robin's bow and arrows before the time limit.

"Robin's stuff is bigger than Olivia's earring, yet, we're having a harder time trying to find it!" Anna complained as they head towards another staircase ("Don't you think the lodge is more like a mansion? Because it's so big!" "I'm just going to ignore at how wrong that sounds…" Angel muttered.).

Angel jumped up, ignoring Anna and Seri's concerned shouts, slid down the rails, and landed catlike on the ground. "Well, The Black Musica is clever enough to steal without any of us noticing. Maybe she's clever enough that she hid Robin's stuff in plain siー HIDE!"

Startled and alarmed, the other two quickly followed Angel as she darted into a cupboard under the stairs and ushered them inside.

Squashed together, they shifted slightly and watched Angel press her ear against the door ("Be quiet so I can listen!"), narrowing her silver eyes.

Through the thin walls of the cupboard, they heard a strange, creepy song sung by a small child, which made it even creepier.

Seri opened her mouth to ask who was outside the cupboard, but when Angel nudged her side gently with her foot, Seri thought it was better to remain silent and wait until the 'child' was gone.

It seemed to last forever, but the song finally faded away, and after Angel slowly opened the door, they crept outside and Seri asked the question that was on her and Anna's mind.

"Who was that?" Seri asked. "Was that a child outside?"

"No." Angel shook her head. "Remember when I played Dead By Daylight with The Blaze Rods and Aiden mentioned Freddy?"

"Sort of? That today was a bit of a mess."

"That was him…" Angel sighed and look around. "You can't see him, per say, but that stupid song from before can help you locate him and see whatever or not he's near you. If it's fading, he's going away. If it's growing louder, he's near you and you need to run far away or he'll drag you into the dream world and get you."

Anna but her lip," He sounds creepy…"

"You have no ideaー"

 ** _CRASH!_**

"OW!"

Something heavy landed on Angel's head, knocking her to the ground.

"Woah, are you okay?" Seri hurried over and helped Angel get up to her feet.

"Ow, ow, ow," Angel winced and rubbed the new bump on her head. "I think so… But don't worry. I've been through worst." She wasn't joking. Being a member of the Order of the Stone can put you through a lot of injuries.

Anna got down on one knee and poked the bundle on the ground, which happened to be the thing that landed on Angel's head, with a broomstick from the cupboard. "What is this thing? It's a really weird shape…"

"Sorry!"

All of them look up at the large, new hole in the ceiling and saw Maya peering at them.

"Sorry! I dropped that! Really sorry, Angel!" Maya said over and over, sounding very apologetic and worried.

"What the hell are you apologizing for, you just dropped the damn thing," Angel grumbled and rubbed the back of her head.

Maya smiled sheepishly. "I know, I know."

"What happened anyway?"

"Well, we went into the kitchen to search for the bow and arrows and Jace found this and decided it would be a good present to give to you." Maya held up something wrapped up, something that looked familiar…

"Is that a frying panー?"

"Yes." Aiden poked his head over the hole and grinned.

Angel gave both of them an unimpressed stare.

"Don't look at us like that, Angel!" Maya scoffed. "It wasn't my idea ー it was Jace's!"

"Oi!" Jace popped out of nowhere. "Don't give me away to the Devil!"

"Please continued the story," Angel said calmly, but they could see her right eye twitching from irritation. "Or else I have to climb up and smack you to get you to shut up."

Maya, who hang out with Angel too much to take her seriously, only smiled. "Sure, sure. Anyway, we asked Jace why it would be a good idea to give it to you, and his reasoning is that because you never seemed to ran out of frying pans to smack creeps in the faceー"

"Haha," Angel said sarcastically.

"ーhe thought it would be a good idea to add another one to the collection. So he went out to wrap it in wrapping paper when Gill pulled out something out and gave it to me, but since it's so darn heavy, I dropped it and it crashed through the floor and landed on your head. So sorry about that!"

Angel waved the apology off. "It's fine, but what was that thing anyway?"

Gill peeked over the hole and said, "I dunno. I just pulled it out of the way and gave it to Maya so I can search for the bow and arrows."

Anna, who was convinced the bundle was safe and started unwrapping it, gasped. "I can't believe our luck! It's the bow and arrows!"

Angel turned so quickly, her neck cracked. Rubbing it, she said, sounding very bemused and shocked, "You're joking…"

"I'm not ー look!"

Seri and Angel ran over and checked for themselves. Sure enough, it was indeed Robin's bow and quiver-filled-arrows; just as beautifully carved as the picture.

"Bloody hell!" Angel exclaimed. "I can't believe it! We found the bow and arrows! But are you sure it's the real thing?" Angel added cautiously. "There could be copies of- ARGH!"

Maya had jumped down and flattened Angel to the ground again. She sheepishly apologized as the rest jumped down, before saying, "I overheard Raven and Robin arguing ー oh, don't look at me like that, Angel, I wasn't eavesdropping on purpose!"

Angel rolled her eyes. "Likely story.."

"Shut up." Maya stick out her tongue at her. "Anyway, they were arguing about Robin's messy habits ー which every boy has now that I think about it ー"

"Oi!" Jace, Aiden, and Gill's indignant squawks were ignored.

"ー then Raven complained that if he keeps up his messy habits, he's going to lose his bow in a pile of copies, but Robin points out that his bow's gems. were enchanted so that if anyone tried to make copies of the bow, the gems will turn into glass. Maybe we can check?"

"How on earth are we supposed to check whatever or not the gems are real?" Seri asked with a frown.

"The games are real," Jace said, examining the gems. "Fake gems usually have uneven colors and scratches on them. These gems don't."

Anna threw Jace a strange look. "How did you know that?" She asked curiously.

"Ermー"

"Don't bother trying to get an answer out of him ー we've tried for weeks," Angel said, rolling her eyes. "He won't say anything."

Seri opened her mouth to either say that they should shut up and start going to the Strangling Room (that still left a shiver every time they mentioned the room), or try to get Jace to spill when there was a faint chainsaw noise.

All present Dead By Daylight players froze and shared an alarmed look. That could be either The Hillbilly or The Cannibal. Either one can put them in serious danger.

Angel quietly hissed, "You four split up from us right now. The bigger the group, the more attention we get from the killers."

Aiden gave her a look that clearly said they didn't need to be told twice, but they rushed away without a word.

Panicking, Angel ran over their options. They can either hide in the cupboard or run away. Both options can get them in trouble. If they hide in the cupboard, the Killer might check there, spot them, and with nowhere else to run, the Killer will use his chainsaw on them. If they run, the Killer will be attracted to the noise their footsteps make and follow after them.

Making up her mind, Angel turned to Seri and Anna, who was looking at her with alert and panic, and said:

 ** _"We need to hide in that cupboard!"_**

 ** _"We need to run over there!"_**

 **Choose Wisely~**


	13. Hiding From the Enemy

**Hide**

"We need to hide in that cupboard!" Angel hissed out. "It's safer!" She remembered there were tons of secret passageways all over the lodge and if they're lucky, they might come across one in the cupboard and get away. She didn't dare voice this thought though; she didn't want to jinx herself.

Seri picked up the bow and quiver and dart inside the cupboard, followed by Anna and Angel, and all of them sat quietly, waiting for any noises.

After a few minutes of silence, Anna leaned over to whisper into Angel's ear, "Since you know more about the killers than us, can you tell us who is the Killer outside?"

"Either Hillbilly or Cannibal," Angel muttered back, her voice low so that only Seri and Ann could hear. "Either one. I'm not sure. Both have a hammer and a chainsaw."

"Any tips fighting against them?" Seri whispered, sounding a bit uncomfortable ("What's wrong?" "I'm sitting on something hard!" Angel coughed awkwardly). "I want to know what to do when we bump into them."

"Sure, let me think…" Angel paused, tapping her finger on her knee. "The chainsaw may be enchanted so that it only hits a person, door, or pallet from the noises I've heard upstairs, do to stun them, try getting them to hit a wall, but be careful with Cannibal, or Leatherface as we call him. Leatherface is a child trapped in a man's body, so if he's stunned, he'll throw a tantrum."

Anna's eyebrows shot up, "Why is that a problem?" She asked, keeping her voice low just in case a Killer was nearby.

"Leatherface is seven feet tall and is strong enough to swing a chainsaw with ease," Angel said with a poker face. "So when he throws a tantrum, and you happen to be under his fists…" She trailed off, letting them understand what she was implying.

They got it immediately. "Ah…"

Angel sighed, "Anyway, Hillbilly is no problem. The longer he sprints, the longer the stun is, so try getting him running as long as possible, then stun him by making him run into a wall."

"Now that's useful," Seri smiled, unknowingly causing Angel to shiver. "If only I can use my superspeed, I can outrun him just fine."

"Yeah…" Angel muttered. "And please don't say 'useful' again, it reminds me of something I'd rather not remember…"

Seri blinked, confused, but decided not to ask seeing how uncomfortable Angel looks. "Alright… what about their speed?"

"Both can walk pretty fast, but both of their speeds are different after activating their chainsaw," Angel answered immediately, having to have explained this to her friends while playing Dead By Daylight. "Activating the chainsaw takes time, you see, and it slows them down until the chainsaw's fully activated. Once the chainsaw is turned on, the Killers are able to down you in one. Hillbilly is extremely fast, but like I said, the longer he sprints, the longer the stun, so just make him crash into a wall ("Snrk!") after a few minutes. Leatherface is a bit slower after turning on the chainsaw, but he can hit multiple targets, which means we might have to be careful with him."

"What else?" Anna asked, starting to grow extremely nervous from the info about the Killers.

"When turning on the chainsaws, it is extremely loud, so you'll be able to locate the Killers easily. At least for Hillbilly 一 Leatherface is a bit quieter. Oh, and get them in cluttered spaces so it's easier to stun them. That's all, for now, 一 I'll think of more later."

"Alright…" Anna said, then paled. "Wait, which Killer is more dangerous?"

Angel grimaced. "I'm… not sure, actually. Hillbilly's extremely fast when he activates his chainsaw, but he can only hit one target. Leatherface is not as fast, but unlike Hillbilly, he can easily down several targets, so it depends on how you see it."

"These two are becoming my least favorite Killers," Seri muttered, her face paling from the thought of meeting the two.

"Believe me, there are much worse." Angel sighed.

Now that she's done giving tips, Angel decided to feel around the cupboard for a possible escape route in case a Killer decided to check in each room and closet. She was feeling her hands on the wall behind Anna when Seri softly spoke up.

"Hey, I think I found an escape route." She whispered.

Seri got their full attention immediately.

"You do?" Anna said in amazement. "How?"

"Remember earlier when I complained I was sitting on something hard?"

Anna blinked. "Yeah. Why?"

"Look!" With great difficulty, Seri moved out of the way and _flipped the floor up_. "It's a hatch! I think it's a shortcut to the dorms! I can see some of our rooms!"

"The dorms are a five-minute walk to the living room, which is a twenty-minute walk to the Room!" Angel whispered, her silver eyes glittering in the dark. "So if we jump in there and Seri can use her superspeed… We can get there in time and Raven won't die!"

"So what are we waiting for?" Anna eagerly asked. "Come on! Let's jump inside and get to the一"

 ** _THUMP!_**

The trio froze and turned to the cupboard door, which happened to be the cause of the noise.

"This is not good," Seri muttered, her eyes wide with panic. "This is not good _at all_."

 ** _THUMP THUMP!_**

Angel was quick to run over her options. If they chose to jump down the hatch, the Killer will slow them down if it's Hillbilly, and down them all in one hit if it's Leatherface. But it could be someone harmless, so maybe they should wait and see who it is and then jump down the hatch. But, of course, they would be a stupid move if it wasn't someone harmless so…

Making up her mind, Angel turned to Anna and Seri and hissed out:

 ** _"Jump in! Now!"_**

 ** _"Wait and see who it is! Then jump in!"_**

 **Choose Wisely~**


	14. Rescued From the Wheel of Death

**Wait and Jump**

"Wait and see who is it!" Angel hissed. "Then jump in!"

"But why-?"

"It might be someone harmless," Angel muttered, scooting closer to the hatch. "If it isn't, jump in and feel free to give me a good slap later." She thought it wasn't a good time to say 'kill'.

Anna bit her lip, probably from noticing what Angel was intending to say, but nodded and wait by the hatch, ready to jump in if needed. "Alright. Whatever you say…"

The door slowly opened and much to the three girls' shock, a very surprised and very battered Lukas stood there, standing at them in bewilderment.

"Oh, it's you!" Seri exclaimed from relief and surprise. "You're that blonde guy from earlier!"

Lukas looked slightly annoyed. Whatever it's from being referred as 'blonde guy', or from the three long, bloody, cuts on his cheek, they didn't know. "It's Lukas," he said, so they assumed the former. "Why does everyone remember me as 'blonde guy'?" He grumbled. Definitely the former.

"Because you have blonde hair, Lukas," Jesse, who popped into sight, said cheekily. She didn't seem to be bothered by the _hatchet_ _sticking out of her shoulder._

"Angel has blonde hair, and they remember her name!" Lukas retorted back as Olivia and Axel came to sight.

Olivia, who had three, long, bloody cuts on her arm, rolled her eyes. "Angel is easy to remember. Remember the time she told this one girl she looked like a before picture?"

Axel, who was limping with a bloody leg and looked very annoyed about something, managed a snort of laughter.

Anna and Seri, momentarily forgetting their situation, roared with laughter. Angel simply ignored them, going to Mother Mode (as Axel and Jace called it back when they first met Jace) as she stared at their injuries with narrowed eyes.

" _What happened to you four_?" She demanded.

Anna and Seri only had small three-inch cuts on their faces from the times they startled her and got her to throw out her daggers, and slashes on their arms from the sharp wood they accidentally brushed their elbows and wrists against. But to have a hatchet on a shoulder, a limp, and long, deep cuts on all over their bodies is a bit...much.

"Huntress," Jesse said immediately. "She threw a hatchet at me and it won't get off no matter what we do."

"Hag," Olivia said, looking at her injured arm. "I stepped into a trap and she came out of nowhere and attacked me. Barely managed to get away."

Lukas glanced at his cheek and shrugged. "Same as Olivia. Except she jumped right at me after attacking Olivia."

Axel grunted and said, "Cannibal."

Angel's eyebrows shot up and waited for an answer.

Seeing her look and knowing what she'll do and say to Petra if he didn't answer right away, Axel elaborated, "He came out of nowhere and slammed his hammer on my leg."

"Ouch!" Seri, who had finally stopped laughing along with Anna, winced in sympathy.

"And the other injuries?" Angel asked, raising a pale eyebrow and scooting closer to the door.

"The loose floorboards are surprisingly sharp," Olivia sighed. "So when we got four careless teens, and they searched under the floorboards, we get cuts."

Axel glanced over his shoulder anxiously. "Enough talking," he said impatiently. "Angel, do you have any more room in there?"

"Axel, you're seven feet tall and huge," Angel said blankly, her pale eyebrow shooting up even higher. "How are we supposed to fit you inside? Why do you want to hide in here?"

Jesse's expression turned nervous. Very nervous. "Well, er, you see… we ran into The Shape."

Angel gaped at them for a few seconds, then hissed, "Are you for real-? Get in! There's a shortcut to the dorms via hatch! Jump-"

A knife came shooting out from between Jesse and Lukas and hit its target, _which happened to be Angel's chest_. She cut herself off, her silver eyes wide with shock before they roll to the back of her head and she fell conscious.

"It's him!" Jesse shouted, turning to what Petra called Leader Mode as Anna and Seri screamed from horror. "You two head down the hatch with the bow and Angel no! We'll hold him off!"

"But what about you guys?" Seri asked shakily as her hands tugged at the knife in Angel's chest.

"We'll be fine," Jesse said firmly. "That knife is Shape's only weapon and he doesn't have any extras. He's harmless now. And don't bother pulling that knife out, we tried it with the hatchet and it wouldn't budge. Go!"

Seri, with trembling hands, scooped up the bow ("I'll grab Angel," Anna said softly) and the two both jumped down the hatch, leaving the four outside to deal with a large man with a white mask.

As the two slide down the tunnel, an announcement came on.

"Five more minutes until Annabelle meets a terrible fate! Hurry up!"

"Go," Anna mouthed to Seri as they landed in the hallway of the dorms. "Give the bow to Robin. We'll fine. You can't heal Angel with that knife stuck一" She took in a shuddering breath. "一in her chest anyway."

Seri bit her lip and looked as though she started to argue, but she nodded and disappeared in a flash of white.

Anna waited with the unconscious Angel, and after what seemed like forever一

"Seriblaze has found and handed the bow and quiver to Adrian! Congratulations! You won again! Now, as a lot of you are injured, head back to the Living Room immediately after grabbing Annabelle to treat your wounds. Once you get to the Living Room, you may pull out the weapons you may have stuck in your bodies!" For some reason, that sounded _wrong_. "Have a nice day~"

Anna shouted in alarm as a white circle appeared around her and Angel and teleported her to The Strangling Room.

* * *

The ropes around Raven's limbs suddenly loosened enough so that she can easily slip down, which is exactly what happened.

Raven landed gracefully on her feet but was immediately squeezed to death by her very worried twin brother.

"I know you were worried and all…" Raven managed to choke out. "But squeeze me to death later, because I can't breathe."

Robin let go of her as everyone else teleported inside, all looking surprised and very injured, but very relieved to see that they won another game.

"What happened to you all?" Robin asked, wrinkling his nose from the metallic scent of blood.

Petra, who was barely recognizable from the blood covering her face and clothes, grunted, "Do you need to ask?" She snapped.

Robin quickly put his hands in surrender. "I was just asking!"

"Well," Petra hissed out. She didn't seem to be in a very good mood. "Aren't you an insensitive little-"

"Enough," Angel, who regained consciousness, grunted. She looked very pale and weak from the blood loss. "You two are giving me a headache."

" _What on Earth happened to you?_ " Petra rounded up on her next, much to Angel's dismay. "Is that a knife in your chest?! What did you do this time?"

"It wasn't _my fault_ − that knife came charging at me!"

"Oh, so I'm supposed to believe _that_?"

Tacey rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance and resignation. She didn't look very injured except for the blood covering her clothes and long, red hair, but her arm was hanging at a very awkward angle, so they assumed one of the Killers broke it. "Maybe we should go back to The Living Room," She suggested, wincing from her broken arm. "A lot of us need healing ASAP."

"Understatement," Kate said, looking around and grimacing at the number of injuries everyone has. "Seems today's round is more deadly this time."

Anna adjusted her grip on Angel. "Agreed."

So they head to the Living Room, ignoring Petra and Angel bickering along the way.

* * *

 **A/N: My writing _sucks_ in this chapter. Lol.**


	15. Second Intermission

Raven was left with nasty rope burns left behind on her ankles, wrists, and neck, ("Kate, your healing powers don't affect a succubus," Raven said, sighing when Kate approached her). So, with a grimace, she had to wear a scarf, wristbands, and ankle bands to cover the burns.

But Kate was not kidding when she said the round was a bit more deadly than the last one. And that was a bit of an understatement.

Tacey had indeed broken her arm ("I think one of the Killers grabbed me and I broke my arm to get away," Tacey said) and was quickly healed up. Jesse got the hatchet removed from her shoulder ("Ow! Be gentle! Hold still!"), Lukas and Olivia's gashes were treated and bandaged up ("Don't bother healing us," Lukas said when Kate tried to heal him and Olivia. "It'll heal soon"), and Axel's leg was healed and good as new. Seri and Anna were given bandages for their cuts, but that wasn't all.

Ariza _got a chainsaw swung through her side_ , so healing potions were shoved into her hands (she didn't want Kate collapsing because of her) while Mason's broken leg (he wouldn't say what happened, much to the exasperation of everyone), Musa's smashed arm (she muttered something about 'hammers' and refused to say any more), and Ann's bloody scratches ("Freddy," she said flatly, and they understood immediately) were healed.

William somehow got a beartrap stuck on his ankle ("I wasn't looking where I was placing my feet," he said sheepishly), so Angel (her chest wound was already treated) had to spend thirty minutes trying to get it off and another ten gently scolding him to watch where he steps because two of the Killers use traps while his leg got bandaged up (like Ariza, he didn't want Kate to waste her energy).

Petra's elbow was nearly (and roughly) sliced off and she had a large gash on her forehead, so they stitched up the wound ("OW! Stop! That hurt!" "It was supposed to, you idiot," Angel said irritably) and it turned out the reason why Petra was so grumpy was because she was dragged into the dream world (aka falling asleep) by Freddy and Kate had to shake her awake before Freddy could finish ripping off her elbow. Now, Petra is super grumpy when she gets forcefully woken up, which is why she's grumpy and snapping at everyone, even though waking up saved her arm, and that will stay that way until Petra gets her sleep.

The Blaze Rods nearly got their shoulders cut straight off ("We bump into The Nurse," Maya said when asked. Angel winced in sympathy, "Ooo, that much suck. That bonesaw can cut through bone and fresh.") and Jace is Jace and got a spiky stick sticking out of his stomach ("WHAT?!") from taunting The Doctor (Jace glared at Aiden, who explained what happened to Jace when he refused to say anything, hatefully as Olivia and Angel shouted themselves hoarse at him).

Kate was injured herself, but much to her friends' exasperation and dismay, she didn't want to drink a healing potion heal herself until all the wounds, broken bones, and bruises were all healed ("My injuries are paper cuts compare to you guys!" She protested, which is a lie because she got bruises all over her body from being slammed against doors and walls and a spear sticking out of her knee). However, unfortunately for her, Jesse and Tacey ganged up on her after healing Maya (Kate looked exhausted at this point) and forced a healing potion down her throat (after removing the spear of course).

But despite all the healing, scars were left behind. This was proven when Kate, who was very tired by this point ("I'm fine!"), noticed faint scars on Lukas' face even though he had drunk a healing potion that they found, much the confusion of everyone else. Angel, overcame by a horrifying realization, began removing her gold scarf ("What are you doing?" Maya asked, looking and sounding bemused) and revealed that the _red mark from the first round was still there and not going anywhere._

Ann had voiced her suspicions about The Black Musical enchanting the weapons so that the scars will forever remind them to never cross her once they leave and, because of her sadistic thoughts and obsession with killing and harming others, they didn't doubt this.

Angel, herself, had a theory but decided not to voice it in order to not delay the decrease in tension. Since The Black Musical has an obsession with seeing others hurt, Angel had the feeling she enchanted the weapons to leave scars so she could see how much it affected them. To see them glancing at their scars every time she summons them to hunt for another item, to see them cover their scars every time she looks at them, to see them squirm when talking about the Killers, and to see the flash of fear when Killers approach ー because of she can't harm them physically, why not _traumatize_ them?

There was one thing Angel knows, was that although some people view scars as a sign of being brave, others view it as a reminder of a traumatic event that they rather not remember.

Angel would know. She still has the faint scars on her forehead and left forearm, cleverly hidden by her bangs, sleeves, and makeup.

But it may just be her pessimist side talking, so Angel hoped it was just that because she prefers not to think about The Black Musical's sadistic thoughts.

So, with scars, dark marks that look strangely like bruises, and dark line-like cracks that resemble a broken bone, everyone sat down, spread out on each other's shoulders, laps, and legs, exhausted from healing. There was one advantage to the Hunting Games (as Jace officially dubbed it from the annoyance of constantly calling it 'rounds' or 'games'); it brought everyone closer.

"You know,"Angel muttered, leaning against Petra's legs while reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ("What? It's a good book! Don't look at me like that Jace!") "I've been wondering about something."

"Fire away," Petra said lazily, barely glancing at her.

"How do we knew the exact location of the Strangling Roomー" Everyone flinched. "ーonce we got the item and the number of minutes to get there?"

There was a short silence as everyone thought this over.

"It might be enchantments…"Ann said slowly after a few minutes of silence ("Crazy about enchantments, isn't she?" Jace muttered to Olivia, who happily smacked him). "The items may be enchanted to give your team the knowledge of the location and the number of minutes to get there… I'm not sure…"

"She seems to know a lot of magic,"Seri mused (they didn't dare say her name anymore), leaning against Anna, who was doing the same. "That makes you wonder where she gets her spells."

"It's probably dark soul-binding magic or something," Jesse sighed, running her fingers through Lukas' hair (Lukas laid his head in Jesse's lap after everyone finished healing and dozed off. "If it isn't, I'm slapping Lukas."

"Hey!"

Olivia made a strange noise that sounded both amused and disproving (Angel was too tired and wanted to read to go to Mom Mode, so she left it to Olivia).

Robin did his best to shrug, as Raven was leaning against his shoulder, sleeping ("Don't do anything to wake her up," he warned. "Sis is pretty scary if you wake her up, intentional or not.") "It's not demon magic; we would know if it is."

"Oh yeah. Sex demons. Forgot," William said awkwardly. It was very easy to forget two of the people in this room aren't exactly… human when they don't look like demons ("We have disguises," Robin said flatly. "This isn't what we really look like.).

"To change the subject," Anna said abruptly after a comfortable silence. "Olivia, right? You said something about a story of Angel calling a girl a before picture?"

Raven woke up with a start (she didn't look very happy at all) as the room suddenly exploded with laughter. Within the next few seconds, there wasn't a single person who was chuckling, snorting, or rolling on the ground roaring with laughter. Except for Musa, but her lips were twitching madly, so either she forgot how to smile or laugh, or that she was trying and failing to hide her amusement.

Angel flushed as Axel pounded her back, laughing. "That girl was harassing Jesse no matter what we said ー I had to do something."

"Okay," William said, gasping for air. "Now this is a story I want to hear."

Olivia snorted, holding her side. "Well, there was this one girl who kept harassing about, and I quote, 'chasing after a boy out of her league', so Angel got super annoyed and called her something that just made the girl even more riled upー"

"Olivia, I will slap youー" Angel warned, but since Olivia lived with her for a few years, she was unaffected by the threat.

"ーso they engaged into an insult contest, which I'm pretty sure Angel was winning since that girl's insults were getting really pathetic and stupidー"

"Olivia, I swear to Notchー"

"ーand the last insult Angel said was 'if you think you're so special, why do you look like a before picture?' and it was hilarious looking at the look on the girl's face when she said that," Olivia finished, laughing.

Ariza and Ann roared with laughter, the latter being a surprise to everyone, as the young host is normally calm and professional. Guess there's a lot more to her.

Angel finally gave up and rolled her eyes at her laughing friends, but closed her book and said, "In my defense, she was wearing so much makeup, she looked like a deformed zombie."

"Nice," Jace cackled, then let out a squawk as a large cushion went flying in his direction, smacking him in the face and knowing him off his spot on Olivia's lap.

Tacey smiled faintly, "Very mature, Angel," she said, before ducking another cushion, which hit Ariza in the face instead.

Angel's annoyed look comically fell into a look that summarized her thoughts: "Oh shit."

"Shi ー sorry Arizaー" she was abruptly cut off when she leaned back and caught the pillow shot at her with wide eyes.

Ariza grinned, "To let off some steam for tomorrow, how about a pillow fight?"She asked, picking up a pillow.

Jesse's beautiful green eyes glinted as she got up ("Did you had to move?" Lukas complained) and picked up another cushion. "I declare a pillow war!"

Olivia's eyes widened. "Oh no, she's in Battle Modeー" she cut herself off and dodged several misaimed pillows, a few others doing the same.

"Oi!"Angel shouted, scooping up her book and hiding behind a couch. "Watch the book!"

They were so busy with the pillow war (either watching or participating in the war), they didn't notice someone sneaking off to escape.

* * *

 ** _They still haven't noticed._**

 ** _Either they don't know ~~~ well…_**

 ** _Or it's not that noticeable._**

 ** _I don't know what's wrong with ~~~._**

 ** _But it's not good._**

 ** _~~~ heard screaming in the basement._**

 ** _No one questions it, seeing as we're living in a house with_ her _._**

 ** _But ~~~ felt a huge amount of pleasure every time the screaming starts._**

 ** _~~~ kept laughing too._**

 ** _It's scary._**

 ** _No, not scary… terrifying._**

 ** _~~~ keep looking into this for now… if it continues, everyone will get suspicious_ _about ~~~._**

 ** _I think I should stop writing… my hand is shaking so much, my quill is smudging the page with ink._**

 ** _I hope ~~~ okay…_**

 ** _Musa~_**

* * *

 ** _A/N: Fun fact, I had ink blots instead of '~~~' since it was really cool, but fanfiction won't allow it. Why fanfiction, why?_**

 ** _You can check out the ink blot version here:_** ** _foreverfairy . deviantart art / Rewrite - The - Lodge - Intermission - II - 727098558?ga_submit_new=10%3A1516690331. Without the spaces of course._**


	16. The Search for Jesse's Sword

Musa ー no, _Rin_ ー twitched a bit, her breathing slow and calm as she opened her eyes. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, her hands running through her hair and over her wolf earsー

The thirty-one-year-old cursed to herself and quickly vanished her wolf ears. Rin thought she controlled it by now. Guess not.

Rin rolled off her bed, quite literally, and crashed to the ground with a grunt, laying there for a few moments and wondering why on Earth she was so tired today. She wasn't a morning person, but she wasn't that tired. There were times when she would just straight up roll off the bed but she would usually wake up when it happened, but not like this.

Then she remembered Igor.

Of course. The odd man decided to drag her out of her dreams and summon her for a small chat. Sometimes, Rin was quite tempted to strangle him for interrupting her sleep. She liked her sleep. None of her friends and, Rin thought with a strange mix of hatred and sorrow, her _family_ liked waking her up for this fact because once she almost blew up Adrian's head for waking her up.

Sound magic is a dangerous thing sometimes.

There was a knock on the door. "Rin? Wake up, everyone's ready except for you. We have a long day today." It was Annabelle. Rin still had a hard time calling her 'Raven' instead. It was easy to slip up if she wasn't so quiet.

Rin groaned in reply.

"Oh, please don't tell me you rolled off the bed again! I'm going to chew off Igor's head if he drags you away from dreamland for a chat, " The woman groaned and walked inside. "I knew it! Get up Rinー"

"No," Rin grumbled. "Go to hell, Bella."

"Rin, I told you not to call me that again," said the brunette, sounding exasperated. "Just Anna. And please just get up."

"There's another Anna here and it's confusing. Now go away." Rin wasn't exactly kidding when she said she wasn't a morning person. She's generally a quiet, snarky (but let's face it, no one knows this), loving (to friends and family, but to others, she's just super quiet), determined, ambitious, and resourceful person but when she's super tired, she throws all these aside and just wants the person to go away.

"No boba fresh milk tea for you then," Annabelle deadpanned. Rin twitched and she was sure Annabelle smirked at this.

"...just let me get ready and I'll be there," Rin muttered, rolling onto her stomach and getting up to her feet.

Annabelle snorted and walked out of the room. "I'll get the boba fresh milk tea ready for you!" She yelled, her voice fading.

Rin sighed and checked her wrist. The Black Roses managed to grow to her elbow. She didn't know why. She thought it was to restrain her magic, but everyone who had powers didn't have the Black Roses tattooed on their skin.

And so the Black Roses slowly grew every day since The Black Musical arrived and she had no idea why. It just keeps on growing and growing.

Rin didn't want anyone finding out about the Black Roses, so she used her jacket sleeves to cover them up (her off the shoulder tank top just reached to her elbow) and later, makeup when they were healing injuries (she slipped away before they noticed).

As she put on her jacket and slipped on her shoes, her gaze fell onto an old photograph of a laughing college student and a young teenager smiling faintly at the camera. She remembered taking that photo. It was of herself and her big brother. It was back in her senior year of High School before she was disowned by her father…

Rin forcefully averted her eyes to her headphones and put them on. To anyone, it was useless, but it actually restrains her magic a bit and prevents her eardrums from bursting.

Due to her magic, she could hear all sounds, all conversations, and footsteps in the entire building, but due to the constant arguing from the Demon Siblings, she couldn't sleep at night and therefore, grumpy and nearly blew up their eardrums several times until Ann had enough (by that, she meant screaming at the top of her lungs to get them to shut up) and enchanted an old pair of Musa's headphones so that it'll reduce her hearing to 10 meters.

Adrian had taken one look at the headphones and said they look like crap, which Rin returned that the headphones may be crap, yes, but at least they weren't as ugly as his face. The result was Annabella and Ann roaring with laughter at the look on Adrian's face.

She's very quiet (which can annoyingly be seen as shy), yes, but that had people underestimate her, so they'll be too shunned that she insulted them to find a good comeback, so win-win. How Slytherin of you, as Annabelle would say. Rin once took a quiz after that to find out what House she got and had Slytherin ("Wow. That surprisingly fits you." Adrian earned a punch to the shoulder a second later.)

Rin searched through her drawers for her spear and pulled it out, grimacing at the blood. She needs to clean that soon.

Fun fact: She was actually the reason why Kate had a spear in her knee. Kate had startled her, Rin threw her spear clumsily (The Wraith had smashed her good arm before their encounter with Kate) and it managed to go through her knee ("I am _so_ sorry!" She had shouted over and over) and they weren't sure why it wouldn't come outー

Back to the story!

A letter slipped out and landed on the floor as Rin cleaned the blood off her spear with a disgusted look (it was Kate's blood! _Kate's_ ). She blinked and scooped it up after cleaning her spear and read through it.

 ** _Dear Rin,_**

 ** _Aph and I got engaged! I managed to gather up my courage and propose to her! She said yes! We're planning the wedding and Aph wants you to come! She really wants to see you again, it's been years._**

 ** _All our friends really want to meet you, Rin, so please come._**

 ** _Melissa sends you her love and mom says she wants to kiss you goodnight like old times and she hopes you're doing alright on your own._**

 ** _Listen, I know you won't be happy about this, but dad wants you to come home. To our family I mean. He says he's sorry and he's wrong and he wants you back._**

 ** _We can be a happy family again._**

 ** _From your big brother who wants to hug you again,_**

 ** _Aaron~_**

Rin remembered the emotions she was going through when she read the letter a few days ago. She was, of course, ecstatic when she heard about the wedding was prepared to write a 2 paged letter about it, but soon felt reluctant to come home after reading towards the end and wasn't sure to feel about it.

She barely thought about writing a reply to the end of the letter when Ann opened the door, let out a sigh of relief when she saw Rin awake (because who wants to wake up a person who can very easily blow up your eardrums?), and said everyone except her and Angel's ready.

That's when Rin had a sudden thought. Can they write to their families to get help? Can their families help them before it's too late? Rin planned to write a reply after meeting with everyone, but after the whole mess with The Black Musical, she didn't get a chance to. Maybe she can write a reply afterward? She snatched up Aaron's letter and hurried out of the room, determined to find out.

* * *

"There you are," Ann said upon seeing Rin, "here's your boba fresh milk. It was finished a while ago."

Rin wasn't very surprised that it was finished early and eagerly reached out for the drink. Annabelle has ways to finish making a boba tea faster that she wouldn't tell (much to Adrian's annoyance).

"Is it still early?" Rin muttered to Ann so nobody could hear, starting to drink. "I was wondering why she wasn't shouting for me to wake up."

Rin was referring to The Black Musical, but she didn't want to say her name out loud. Annabelle still had the rope burns from yesterday.

"It's 9:40 AM," she muttered back, "I checked the time of the other two hunts and it's always at ten."

"You could have given me a few more minutes of sleep," Rin frowned, swallowing.

"It was 9:20 AM when I sent Raven to wake you up, you mutt," Ann snorted. "Raven said you didn't want to wake up until she said she wasn't going to make you boba fresh milk tea."

"I was lucky you didn't blow up my eardrums for waking you up," Annabelle muttered sarcastically.

Mason snickered to himself, pointedly ignoring Ariza, who was throwing him a mix of hurt and confusion. Rin winced, remembering the loud argument last night.

Ann looked between them, looking torn, then said, "Did Igor talked to you last night?" she asked, low enough so that nobody except Annabelle, Adrian, herself, and Rin can't hear (Annabelle had shooed away Mason and Ariza so they can have a private conversation)

Rin knew the sudden change in topic was to shift the conversation from Mason and Ariza and nodded, "Yeah. He wanted to talk about _her_."

"Has _she_ shown any signs of it?" Annabelle asked, her voice barely above a whisper but, due to advanced hearing (Ann was sitting next to her, so all was fine), they can hear her just fine.

Adrian glanced over his shoulder. "Think so, yeah."

"Has Igor told you anything about Vivian?" Ann asked, frowning.

"No," Rin shook her head. "Blasted man said I'll find out soon."

Ann frowned, "Damn. Without Vivian, we can't defeat _her_."

"It's really strange not to hear Vivian singing and howling in my head," Rin said quietly. "And to think I used to complain about it."

"I still can't believe the Wolf of Hope, Faith, Worship, Grace, Storytelling, Poetry, Song, and Art as well as the Spirit of Chance is your Persona," Adrian snorted. "In case you haven't noticed, you aren't exactly a figure of hope, faith, and worship."

Musa's response was to reach over Ann and give him a hard smack.

Annabelle snorted with laughter at the look on her twin brother's face, which made him glower at her.

"You'll get her back soon, Rin," Ann muttered, ignoring Annabelle's snorts ("Why do you never laugh in front of everyone!" "I did laugh last night, you idiotー").

"Hey, Musa," Aiden said abruptly. "What's that in your hand?"

Rin swore under her breath ("Rin! Language!" Annabelle hissed). She had forgotten about the letter clutched in her hand.

"Oh, this?" Rin said, lifting the letter. "It's a letter from my brother. I was wondering if we can send letters to our families to get help."

Jace pounded on that at once. "Why couldn't you say that before? We could have gotten out of here sooner!"

"Oh, I'm _sorry_!" Rin snapped. "I got this on the day _she_ arrived and I was going to send back a reply when _joy_! Crazy psycho comes out of nowhere and tries to murder everyone! I like to see people with brains try to remember a letter after that ー oh wait, you don't have one."

Rin tried not to snap ー she really did. But this guy was getting on her nerves the moment he stepped inside. She couldn't understand why the Order was friends with him. They seem like nice people.

Jace was mouthing wordlessly at Rin, too shocked to say anything. Rin sat back and silently enjoyed the effect of her words as everyone who is a guest stared at her.

"Nice," Angel, who was the first person to get over her shock, snorted with laughter.

Aiden's lips twitched. "Very nice. Never seen Jace so speechless."

"Seriously though," Lukas cut in, "The letter idea is brilliant! We can send letters to ー"

A knife came out of nowhere and nearly hit Lukas, who dodged out of the way with a yelp just in time.

"Don't even think about it."

The Black Musical appeared on TV again, this time, without her usual crazed smile. She wore a blank look instead.

"You can send letters, yes. It will be suspicious if you suddenly stop writing letters to your loved ones. But, if you send help, and I will know, well…" The Black Musical shrugged in a way that said 'Imagine it all you want, I'm not saying anything."

Rin's hand shot up to her arm, feeling a slight pain in her lower arm. She could practically _feel_ the threat in _her_ words.

Thankfully, no one noticed her hand going up to her arm except, Rin thought with a cringe, Angel and Jesse, who stared at her hand in confusion and something else that Rin couldn't identify.

"Now," The Black Musical smiled, "as you all have your fun from yesterday," A fair few people shifted comfortably, "I will assume you are ready to play another round. Everyone, please check your pockets for any missing possessions!"

Jesse and Angel took their eyes away from Rin to check their pockets (which was a relief because those unblinking, bright, silver and emerald eyes can get a bit unnerving after a while) and Rin checked hers.

Rin's spear was still here, as well as her MP3, pen, headphones, and photos, so what was the item for this round?

"My sword!" Jesse said abruptly. "I can't find my sword!"

"You have got to be kidding me," Jace groaned. "You had several traps protecting that stupid sword ("It is not stupid!" Jesse protested) and _now_ they get stolen? You should stick it somewhere else!"

Rin heard Angel mutter a suggestion to Jesse to help her stick it up his arse, which made Rin fight down a mad desire to laugh as Jesse sniggered under her breath, because Angel was the girl who attacked him with a chair (actually, she broke off a chair legs and started hitting him with them; the only reason why Seri was so nervous was because she didn't know what to make of Angel) which means she will try to stick a sword up his arse later on.

"That's right everyone!" The Black Musical cut off Rin's thoughts said gleefully and completely ignoring Angel's sarcastic muttering. "Jesse's sword is the missing item for this game! Here's a picture of her sword!"

The Black Musical was quickly replaced by a brilliant aqua green sword glowing brightly. The blade was snatched from constant use and the grip was worn and didn't stand out much except for a little piggy charm hanging from the cross-guard. Rin thought the piggy charm was absolutely adorable.

"Now, as for the victim," she popped back on and laughed the laugh that Rin despise with all her heart. "Just watch and see what happens."

" _Ack_!" A web attached to a long thick string came out of nowhere and, to Rin's horror, wrapped itself around Ariza's waist and dragged her away roughly. Before anyone of them could react, several more webs appeared and dragged the screaming guests away.

* * *

"Oof!" The black haired female had felt the web lash out like a whip, had felt the string broke off, and landed harshly on the ground and thanked the gods that she had landed on a web softened her landing.

Others weren't so lucky.

"Olivia, _get off_!"

"Sorry, sorry!"

Rin heard Angel grumble away from where she was flattened on the ground by Olivia, and Rin chuckled a bit when she heard "Goddammit, Olivia. Know where you land first," alongside the grumbling. Everyone else came dropping in ("Gerroff me, Axel!" "Sorry, Lukas!"), then, The Black Musical came on, beaming.

"Welcome to the Spider Room! I'm sure the reason for the name will become very obvious soon. Don't bother trying to free yourself from those webs, Ariza. They're indestructible."

Ariza was stuck on a spider web, which explained the name of the room. Webs were holding her wrists, ankles, and waist in pace so that she wouldn't escape. There was also a web over her mouth so that she won't scream for help. Rin felt a bizarre desire to laugh at this because it was very fitting for Ariza because one of the main characters in her stories was a spider hybrid. Then, a sudden thought came to her and Rin found her eyes searching for a spider.

"In this round, you are to find Jesse's sword and bring it to her in time. There are the usual killers, but if you fail to find the sword in time, well… you'll see soon," The Black Musical said, tilting her head and smiling.

Rin was right about the spider being a part of the trap because a _gigantic_ spider came crawling out of the shadows and started climbing around Ariza, who was trying to subtly avoid it. Ann's streak was a bit more obvious now due to her rapidly paling skin that was obvious even in the dim light. She didn't like spiders that much. Tiny spiders were okay, but spiders the size of a coin will make her run and hide.

Adrian once made fun of her for her fear, but after Ann set off an army of spiders on his bed, he never made fun of her again.

But this spider is definitely huge.

"This spider will suck Ariza's blood from her body and surround her in a cocoon if you fail to find the sword in time. I'm sure her corpse will be a nice treat for the babies~ "

Even more spiders appeared (smaller, but still huge), Ann now looking as though she could faint. Ariza looked like it too, but Musa suspected it was mainly because of the treat comment since she wrote about spiders.

Rin had to agree with Ariza; she was feeling rather green and from the looks of things, so did everyone else (Seri, Anna, and Olivia had vomited farther away; poor girls)

"Anyway," The Black Musical seemed to be the only one to not look like they'll throw up or actually throw up at the treat comment (how sick is she?!) "Please to your teams. Angelina," said girl stopped in her tracks from where she was headed to the Blaze Rods, "go to Rin's team, please."

Angel looked shunned and a little suspicious. "Why? I can just go to the Blaze Rods," she said, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"Oh, they'll be fine, sweetheart! ("I'll show you, sweetheart, when I-" Angel stopped mumbling when Maya bumped her shoulder against hers) They know about the Killers. What do you think?" The question was directed to Ann.

"We don't mind," Ann said simply, determinedly staring at the floor. "It would be nice to rely on actual information rather than instinct."

Angel shot a concerned frown to her friends, then walked over.

Rin was about to protest and say they'll be fine, that she can just go back to her friends when a sharp pain went through her entire arm. She hissed silently and grabbed it, breathing heavily. No one noticed except The Black Musical, who smiled and lifted her wrist to reveal a single black rose.

Rin felt blood drain from her face and quickly followed Mason, Angel, and Ann to the nearest black circle to teleport ("Please go and stand in the black circles, everyone!" The Black Musical shouted) which only made her smile widen.

The arm that had the Black Roses on it was wet with what Rin was sure was blood.


	17. Hiding in the Room of Requirement

They had teleported to a dungeon ("Okay, what? Let's get out of here now.") and soon began exploring everywhere in the lodge, from the umbrella stands ("I've seen it on a TV show!" Ann said in protest when they look at her strangely), to behind paintings ("A murderer was hiding behind them," said Angel, raising an eyebrow, "I don't want to overlook it next time).

Once, when they were searching the basement ("You never know.") Rin had purposely bumped into the Hag and let her claws rip through her arm with the black roses so nobody will be suspicious of the blood.

Ann wasn't very happy about that ("I can't believe you were stupid enough to throw your arm in front of your face! Your arm isn't invulnerable!" "Sorry if I don't want her claws to slice open my throat!" Rin said, stung).

Her reaction was very understandable, especially since she didn't know what's going on. Rin knew how Ann was, she hated seeing her friends hurt. She was horrified at what happened to Adrian and had quietly gone on and on to Rin about how worried she was for Ariza and how she was going to tell Toni (Ariza's boyfriend) if they failed.

She's a loyal Hufflepuff who always wanted to keep her friends, her family, safe and unharmed.

"You are arguing over the semantics of _eating children_!" Angel's voice, sounding exasperated and amused, snapped Rin out of her thoughts.

Rin was, of course, confused, but soon sighed from resignation when she remembered what was going on.

Mason had randomly asked why fairytale witches want to fatten up children before they eat them (because in his words, fat is the grossest part of meat) and Rin had jumped into a very, _very_ , sarcastic dialogue ("Why hello there, little children~. Please follow me to my magical… FITNESS ROOM. NO PANSIES ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT. LEAVE YOUR WHINING AT THE DOOR BECAUSE IT'S LEG DAY AND WE'RE ABOUT TO GET **R-R-R-RIPPE D**.") that made Angel choke with laughter (Rin wasn't expecting that 一 she was expecting her to look at her in disapproval).

Then Ann jumped into a weird explanation ("Because they're always cooking said kids in cauldrons and ovens - aka long cooking times at lowish heat. If you do that to fatty meat, the fat melts completely and the meat gets tear-it-apart-with-a-fork soft. If you do it to lean meat, you get tiny little sad meat bits that bring no joy to anyone."), and they went back and forth while Rin got lost in her thoughts trying to ignore them.

Ann snorted and nodded to Mason, "Wasn't my fault. Mason was the one who started the discussion. Not me."

"And it was Rin who did the hilarious dialogue," Mason said, huffing.

"I can't believe you, Rin," Ann said, mockingly stern, though it was ruined by the huge grin on her face. "With all your sarcastic wit, I'm surprised you didn't drive Raven up the wall."

Rin just rolled her eyes, but as Mason turned to continue searching, her grin turned into a disapproving frown at Mason's back.

Rin knew why. She always thought Mason was a really nice guy and he was always there for Ann to rant when Rin wasn't available. But after what Mason said to Ariza, Rin wasn't sure about that. Ann was mad at him for upsetting Ariza so much but didn't want to choose sides due to the fear of losing both of them as friends.

It's her weakness. If you help her out in bad times, she'll be forever loyal to you. She'll help you out, she'll let you cry on her shoulder, she'll even help you with murder if she didn't know murder was wrong. She'll never go against you unless you hurt another friend. If that happens, she is aware that you did something wrong and will look at you in disapproval, but will never say anything because she doesn't want to lose you as a friend.

Ange sighed, which snapped Rin out of her thoughts again, and threw aside a diadem. "Please stop discussing it. It's making me sick thinking about it."

Ann's disapproving frown disappeared as her lips twitched, "You know, I can see why Gill calls you mom. You are extremely naggy and 一 hey!"

Angel, from where she was halfway up a pile of stuff, had chucked an old dusty wig at the brunette and landed on her head in surprising accuracy, which made Rin hastily stifle her snorts.

"Nice," Rin said, chuckling at the sight of Ann in an old wig. "Nice wig, Ann. Looks great on you."

Ann did the mature thing and made a horrible face at Rin, which only made the sight even more hilarious.

Angel was watching with interest. Rin had to bet that she was still surprised at how childish Ann was since she was so professional earlier, and at how the quietest assistant (Rin cringed at how pathetic it sounded) was snarky with a sense of humor.

Mason was still muttering under his breath as he searched through a pile of stuff ("This is like The Room of Requirement," Angel mused).

"If only we can use a Summoning Charm," Angel said, sighing as she tosses aside another wig (Rin had to wonder if she had to catch her if she falls). "It'll make things so much easier."

"True, but we can't use magic, remember?" Rin pointed out. "She'll kill you if you use magic."

"It's better than having Ariza dead," Angel said, frowning.

Rin had to internally sigh because Angel was yet another honorable Hufflepuff. Not that it was a bad thing, but Rin had to hear Ann worrying over Ariza. She had tried desperately to convince Ann not to use magic or else The Black Musical will kill her. Ann didn't care, of course, which made Rin remind her she won't be able to save her if she was dead. That made her shut up.

Dying for your friends isn't worth it in Rin's opinion. If you die, so do your friends because a death of a friend will affect anyone. It'll destroy them if you die for them. Rin had seen it. Is it really worth it to die for your friends when they're getting destroyed in the aftermath? Rin still remembered Sera's wails of despair and didn't want to see anyone suffering like that.

Ann sighed and took off the wig, "Yes, but we won't be able to save her if you're dead," she said, frowning.

Rin snorted. "Hypocrite," she said. "That wasn't what you said when you were trying to use your aura magic to track down Jesse's sword."

Ann gave her the stink eye. Rin was unaffected as she continued on, "Besides, even if we can use magic, you need to be specific about what you want to summon. You don't want a billion swords charging at you."

It was true. Rin has seen _tons_ of swords in this room.

Angel's lips twitched. "Obviously I won't be stupid enough to do-" she froze in mid-sentence. Rin knew what that meant and straightened up. Angel heard something. Something that wasn't them.

Frowning slightly, Rin took off her headphones and listened carefully for any sounds and voices.

 _"Where is it…?"_

Aiden… he was on the second floor. It wasn't him.

 _"It's gonna be somewhere…"_

Annabelle's voice… she was in a room across the lodge from where they are. Wasn't her either.

 _"Goddammit! Where is it?!"_

Jace… basement… it wasn't him either. Rin's head was starting to hurt from the voices and screaming coming from all over the place.

 _"Watch out! Wraith on your left!"_

It was Petra… she's near… just in a hallway ten feet away…

 _"Don't go in there! Huntress is in there!"  
_

Lukas… same place as Petra… does that mean…?

That's when she heard it. A soft humming echoed in her ears… and it was _right in this room_ , growing louder and louder.

"Huntress," Angel hissed. "We need to go. She can throw axes and her aim is very accurate if you don't get out of the way in time."

They raced off immediately and ran the opposite direction of the humming. Rin put on her headphones ("Put them on! Your head is hurting!") while Angel gestured to a different direction every time the humming grows even slightly louder.

Rin thought it was very strange because the humming grew louder even faster than even Angel thought. She ducked near a pile of chests ("We need to split up! It's easier for Huntress to find us if we're together!") and hid, breathing heavily. She didn't like being alone while being chased by a Killer. It made her scared and exposed.

The humming grew louder 一 she could hear footsteps now一

Rin's heart nearly _stopped_ when she saw a sword between a chest and a suitcase a few feet away, looking exactly like Jesse's sword. It was only a few feet away. She can just run up and grab it…

But she was no Gryffindor. She wasn't brave and reckless. She was cunning, sly, snarky, and resourceful. Rin spotted a large gem from on top a chest. She could grab it and throw it away to create a distraction…

 _'But that gem looks very stuck.'_ A voice in her head said. _'How will you distract Huntress when she's right on top of you?'_

That's right. Angel said Huntress has a very accurate aim. She was named Huntress for a reason. She probably has good reflexes and senses. Breaking off the gem will cause too much noise and it will take time to break it off. Rin couldn't help but remember Aaron's advice.

 _Don't get cocky_. He used to say. _Don't forget your inner weaknesses and don't underestimate your enemies. Go through every possibly; what could go wrong, what could go right, etc…_

Yes, Rin remembered what he said quite well, but Aaron also said to never toss aside her own strengths and underestimate herself.

 _Use your strengths to your advantage.  
_

One of her strengths is that, due to her werewolf status, she has super strength and can tear apart a whole building very easily. She can turn back into a werewolf and break off the gem easier.

But will she dare use her strength for something like this? Her father cursed her so that she couldn't use her werewolf abilities. Her ears and tail were just for show until Annabella lifted the curse. Rin had not dared to use them in fear her father can detect it, and she was also afraid of losing control and attacking someone. She had not _dared._

Risking it doesn't help her at all. She isn't stupid enough to rush forward, grab the sword in front of Huntress and get injured, no matter what Ann said.

Rin isn't honorable nor a Hufflepuff. Rin isn't brave and reckless nor a Gryffindor. Rin doesn't belong to Ravenclaw because, despite her intelligence, she hates showing off how smart she is. It makes her stand out, and Rin prefers to stay in the shadows.

Rin was snapped out of her thoughts when a single drop of blood dropped to the ground from her injured arm.

She followed it and blanched.

There was a trail of blood _leading straight to her._

Rin unknowingly made a trail to her.

Rin was actually stupid enough to make a _bloody trail to her._

That's why the Huntress managed to get to them quicker than they thought.

 _Shit._

Rin didn't dare voice that she was stupid because Aaron told her firmly that she isn't a perfect person so many times, he has taken to smacking her every time she bitterly complained about a mistake and called herself stupid.

He probably says that she was far too used to pain to notice the blood trailing down her arm, or that she was too focused on running away from Huntress to notice anything else.

Rin started to think over her options as the footsteps slowly approached and decided to:

 ** _Distract Then Get The Sword_**

 ** _Run for the Sword_**

 **Choose wisely~**


	18. Tossing Hatchets

**Distract**

Rin let her werewolf form (ugh, never thought she'll see her ears and tail again) take over and grabbed the gem and pulled. To her relief and surprise, the gem just came off with a slight pop. She threw it and the gem landed with a clunk in the opposite direction.

Huntress approached the gem (which was a relief because Rin thought she'll ignore the sound), her footsteps fading away, leaving Rin free to run for the sword.

Rin searched through the chests, wincing at how loud it was, and grabbed a towel to cover up her wounds (she didn't want to lead Huntress to her again and she didn't use her jacket sleeves because she didn't want to expose the black roses to anyone if she bumped into them). Rin quickly wrapped her gashes up and slipped out of her hiding spot, but not before grabbing another gem and throwing it across the room.

She tiptoed to the sword silently and ducked behind piles of stuff to make sure she wasn't seen. It was easy because her black jacket and black hair that covered her pale skin ("I am _not_ a vampire and for the last time, _this is my natural skin color!_ " she had said once to Adrian) blended easily in the darkness of the room.

 _Come on_ , She thought, _almost there. Just a little more, Rin. Closer..._

Rin was four feet away (it was five feet before) now. She wanted to rush towards it but she didn't. It will make too much noise. Rin will attract Huntress to her again.

Three feet away now. Rin threw another gem. It was best to keep Huntress away as long as possible. She hoped Huntress didn't find the others; it'll be another thing to worry about.

Two feet away. She was almost there... Just a few inches away from her fingertips (Rin didn't dare lean closer; she's going to trip and crash)...

 _Gotcha!_

Relief filled Rin as she, with her werewolf strength, tugged the sword from the stone it was stuck on easily, but the relief quickly turned to horror when the handle of the sword bumped into a chest, knocked it loose and sent it falling with a loud crash.

 _Shit!_

Rin let out a low string of swears and raced away, biting back a shout of pain when an ax nearly hit the nape of her neck and hitting her elbow instead because _how on earth did Huntress aimed and threw so fast?_

She had an idea. Rin has a sword in her left hand. Maybe she can use it to slow down Huntress somehow. It seems impossible and risky, but she had to try.

Rin heard the ax fling at her again but instead of dodging it, she twisted around and use the sword to send it rocketing back and hitting Huntress instead (Rin didn't see where the ax hit her and she wasn't going to find out now).

"Ha!" Rin whispered in triumph. She continued running, vaulting over a few pallets as she did so, her eyes scanning for Ann, Angel, or Masonー

"Over here!"

Rin glanced to the right and to her amazement and bewilderment, her whole team were hiding under a trapdoor, waving wildly, but subtle enough so that Huntress wouldn't notice them, at her.

A small smile tugged at her lips as she jumped down after them.

"You got the sword!" Ann said, her brown eyes, quite literally, glowing brightly in the darkness. Rin suspected it was a side effect of her aura magic ー Ann said she didn't know why her eyes glowed in the dark. "Oh! She got you too! Is your elbow alright?"

"It'll live," Rin said, glancing at the ax stuck on her elbow and looking up to see what injuries everyone got. Ann had a gash on her cheek, Angel was nursing her stomach gingerly, and Mason had a bloody nose.

"We'll get that out of your elbow as soon as this is over," Ann said, staring at the ax. "You still got your ears and tail out by the way ー just letting you know."

Rin reached up and felt her ears. "I'll keep them around just in case we need it," she said finally, her tail waving slightly (she still wasn't used to having her ears and tail around, but at least it's more comfortable).

"You were brilliant, by the way," Angel said, directing Rin's attention to her. Rin could see her smile in the darkness. "I didn't know you can see her axes back at her ー you can't do that in the game."

Rin smiled slightly, "Well this isn't the game. Reality and games don't work the same way for your information. I thought everyone knew that."

Mason snorted as Angel rolled her eyes, "Way to call the girl stupid, Musa."

"Oh, I wasn't calling her stupid," Rin said mildly, choosing to ignore her codename. "I was merely telling her to stop being so absorbed in the game or else you'll start thinking you're actually in the game."

"Oi!"

Rin ignored Angel's indignant squawk and turned to Ann, frowning slightly. "So where does this passageway lead to?" She asked curiously.

"It's a passageway to one of the hallways if I remember correctly," Ann said, her glowing eyes averting away. "Exit is disguised as a pot, which I don't know if it's a good thing or not because ー _ugh, what is that?_ "

Rin glanced to where she was looking (which wasn't hard) and nearly vomited on the spot. There was a wet lump on the ground, it smells like rotten food, and it looked _absolutely disgusting._

"Oh my _Irene,_ " Rin said in disgust. "That is absolutely _revolting._ I don't remember seeing _that_ when we last explored this passageway!"

"I think it's a dead body," Mason said, sounding disgusted. Rin was mildly surprised by him because he enjoyed writing and reading murder stories greatly,

"Close enough," Angel said, inspecting the wet lump. Rin couldn't understand how she could stay close to the lump, then remembered she probably seen a dead body many times before (not to mention, the Order were said to not be afraid of toil). "It's a dead animal. Half-eaten too."

"Are there any Killers that eat... animals?" Mason asked, staring at the wet lump that was the half-eaten animal. "I can't think of anything that could break in and sneak in a dead animal to eat in a passageway."

"The only one I could think of is Hag," Angel said thoughtfully. "There's this perk called Memento Mori that allows the Killers to kill the Survivors themselves instead of sacrificing them on meathooks and giving them to the entity. Hag's Mori is to rip open the Survivor's torso, eat their insides, and walk away."

Rin definitely lost her appetite there (she thought mournfully of her boba tea she dropped when they were being dragged away by webs).

"And Rin was near her?" Ann hissed, her nails digging into Rin's shoulder. "That would have happened to her if you hadn't chased Hag off?"

Rin frowned and pointed out a very important detail that she thought everyone knew, "Ann, the Killers' weapons are enchanted to not kill. Do you really think they can use their Mori to kill us when their weapons can't?"

"No," Ann said, looking embarrassed. "Sorry, I forgot about that."

"I can see that," Rin said dryly, rolling her eyes. "Now, please let go of my bloody shoulder ー your nails are long and sharp and it's starting to hurt my shoulder."

Ann quickly let go of Rin's shoulder and was about to apologize when ー

 _CRASH!_

"It's Huntress!" Angel hissed, looking alarmed. "She's going to break down the trapdoor! Come on! Let's go before she breaks the trapdoor completely!"

Rin spotted a large plank of wood laying on the ground. It was the size of a small TV and she was still a werewolf, so she can easily lift it up...

She could use it to block the trapdoor... or she can use it to smack Huntress in the face and blind her...

"Rin, come on!"

Rin ran towards the wood plank and ー

 ** _Block the Trapdoor  
Blind Huntress_**

 **Choose Wisely~ : )**


	19. Traveling In Tunnels

**_A/N: I edited some of the previous chapters, mostly 1-4. Go read them because it'll get confusing soon._**

 **Blind**

Rin ran up to the wood plank, ignoring Ann's shouts of alarm, lifted up the wood plank easily, then, as Huntress jump down the now destroyed trapdoor, slammed the wood plank as hard as she can against Huntress's face.

"RENEE JOANNE LYCAN, IF IT WASN'T FOR THE FACT THAT WE'RE RUNNING FOR OUR LIVES, I WOULD SLAP YOU TO MARS AND BACK FOR BEING SO DAMN CLOSE TO DEATH!" Ann screamed herself hoarse as Rin ran after her, dropping the wood plank.

Rin winced at both the volume and her real name, because a flash of her father screaming her real name appeared in her head, then shook it off and said, "Watch the volume, please. I'm a _werewolf_ with Sound Manipulation."

"That should hold her for a while," Angel, who was watching Huntress holding her face as she stumbled around, cut in, which Rin was very thankful for. "But we should hurry. She'll recover soon. Is there another way to slow her down?"

"I remember Ann saying there's a button that causes a wall to slide into place near the exit," Mason said. "Is that right?"

Ann nodded impatiently, "Yes, yes. There is. There's a dead end near the wall trap too, so either we get trapped there ourselves and let Huntress roam free, or we trap her there with no way out except a tiny exit. I'm pretty sure the latter's preferable."

"It is but _how_ can we trap her?" Angel asked as she turned a corner. Rin had to be impressed at how fast she can run. "She'll crack our skull open before we can do that unless…" Her face lit up. "Yes! That could work!"

"What is it?" Mason asked, slipping on dirt drenched with what looked horribly like blood. Rin fought hard to keep herself from throwing up.

"I think I'm starting to understand," Rin said in thought after she gained control of herself, "I remember Adrian 一 that's Robin to you two, asking loudly why Huntress has five hatchets when she already has an ax 一"

"You actually listen to his rambles?" Ann asked in disbelief. "I stopped listening after 'Why in DBD?'"

Rin snorted, "Well, only when I get bored and wanted someone to talk to but you two are busy. Otherwise, I tune him out and snore."

"Please continue," Masons said, shaking his hair out of his eyes so that he can see them properly.

Angel continued for Rin, "When Huntress throws her hatchets, they disappear. I know they work the same way in real life because I saw a hatchet vanish after it nearly sliced up my stomach."

"Pleasant," Ann muttered sarcastically, "Anyway, she lost two due to the hatchet on Rin's elbow. I got this," She pointed to the gash on her cheek, "when Huntress swung her ax at me. I don't know how Mason got his bloody nose though."

"Oh, that was Angel," Mason said promptly, "I bumped into her, startled her, and she punched me in the nose by accident. It wasn't a gentle punch."

Rin rose her eyebrows. That explained everything. "Really? I thought Huntress did the same thing as Ann and hit your nose."

"No, it wasn't her," Angel said, sounding embarrassed. "I was sneaking away from Huntress, thought Mason was her and punched him. Anyway, she has three hatchets left. If we can get her to use them all, she'll be harmless."

"But how would she get more?" Mason asked. He clearly wanted to get over every loophole. "How do we know she only has three hatchets left?"

"I saw Angel used the lockets to replenish her hatchets back when she first arrived," Rin said before Angel could answer. "I'm pretty sure there are no lockers here. And she lost three一 she threw a hatchet at me and I dunno about the hatchet I hit back at her. There aren't any lockets, right?"

"No there isn't," Ann said, grinning. "There isn't any in that room we were in either. We're in luck."

"But how do we know Huntress still replenishes her hatchets by using the lockers?" Mason asked, frowning. "This isn't the game, this is real life."

Angel suddenly grinned. "Jesse told me she saw Huntress using the lockers and pulling out some hatchets. I say that she restocks her hatchets the same way as the game 一 Woah!"

A hatchet shot pass Angel and hit the wall in front of her.

"Seems she caught up to us," Mason remarked, looking over his shoulder, "And she's being stupid. She has one hatchet left."

"Then it's a rather good thing she can't throw her ax," Rin said, "I rather not want my shoulder getting smashed by a gigantic ax."

"Thanks for the mental image," Ann said dryly, spotting Huntress running towards them. "Anyway, so the plan is to make her lose her hatchets and shove her in a dead end and push the button? Do your thing, Rin."

Rin smiled and pulled out her spear and ran at Huntress. Using the dirt to her advantage, she slides under Huntress's arm and slammed her foot into the back of Huntress's ankle, knocking her to the ground. A hatchet shot at her head, which Rin dodged. It vanished immediately.

 _No hatchets now_ , Rin thought smugly, as Huntress got up, lifting up her ax. Rin spun around and ran off, making sure Huntress was following her, her eyes scanning for Ann and the exit一

Rin spotted Ann's hand in the shadows hovering over the button and jumped back and shoved Huntress just as a wall slide in place.

"Nice," Mason said as they listen to Huntress hitting the wall with her ax over and over. "Though, Huntress doesn't sound very happy."

"Serves her right," Angel snorted. "Now where's the exit? We need to get the sword to Jesse and save Ariza."

Rin snorted and said, "The exit is right there," She pointed to a small hole in the wall, "but it's too small for any of us to get in."

To Rin's astonishment, Angel just smiled, "I got this!" She got down on her knees and shouted, "Oi! Maya! Are you there?"

Rin was wondering if Angel needed to go to a mental hospital when, to her surprise and bemusement, Maya's head _popped out of the exit.  
_

"You got the sword!" Maya said happily, ignoring Mason, Ann, and Rin's stunned faces. "I was wondering when you'll call me."

"How?" Mason said blankly.

Ann blinked rapidly, "How is right. How did you get here so fast and how did you fit in the exit?"

"Maya can fit inside small spaces due to her flexibility," Angel said, smiling, "I bump into her when I first found the trapdoor and asked her to stay around just in case."

Rin shook herself out of her shook, "Well, that makes things so much easier then." She remarked.

"Completely," Ann agreed, "I think there's a button in there that can enlarge the exit. Do you think you can get it, Maya?"

"Think so," Maya replied, "but I can also get the sword out myself and get it to Jesse and save Ariza."

Mason nodded, "That's true. The Spider Room is about fifteen minutes away if we go out the exit."

"What do you think, Musa?" Angel asked, turning to Rin. "I can't decide between them and you seem pretty determined to finish as soon as possible."

"Thanks," Rin said dryly, then said一

 ** _"Give Maya the sword."_**

 ** _"Enlarge the hole."_**

 **Choose Wisely~**


	20. Rescued From the Webs

**Give the Sword**

"Give Maya the sword," Rin said, "It'll be faster."

"Ah, okay." She said, grabbing the sword. "Can you come with me by the way? You have superspeed and I want to have you around just in case."

Rin's eyebrows rose to her hairline but agreed anyway. Then she remembered where they were. "Please press the button to get us out of here. I don't think any of us want to stay here any longer, especially with her."

She gestured to the wall with the trapped Huntress, who was still hitting the wall with her ax.

Maya nodded in understanding. "Yeah. Give me a second and let me find the button."

"The button shouldn't be hard to miss," Ann said, bending down. "It's big and red. Feel around and slam it."

Maya only gave a small thumbs up to let them know she heard her, then disappeared through the exit. A moment later, the exit grew large enough so that it can fit all of them.

Mason whistled. "Sweet. You first, Musa," he said, shoving Rin. "You are going with Maya, after all."

Rin gave him the stink eye, then followed Maya down the passageway.

* * *

"Is it clear?"

Rin slowly lifted up the pot, glanced around, and said, "Yeah. Just be quiet," she pulls herself out from the exit.

 _CRASH!  
_

 _"Maya!"_

"Sorry, sorry!"

The werewolf only shook her head at the sheepish girl on the ground. "Come on. Do you still have the sword?"

"Of course," Maya said indignantly. "What do you take me for? A noob?"

"I was thinking a stupid Gryffindor, but close enough."

Maya scoffed and pulled out the sword, "I have the sword here," She said, ignoring what Rin said, much to her relief because she did not want an argument about stupid Gryffindors to stall them. "How many minutes left?"

"About twenty minutes. But we should hurry just in case."

"Alright一"

 _"1,2, Freddy's coming for you~"_

Rin watched Maya's face whiten in either terror or surprise and choose the former. She didn't blame her, she was struck with fear.

"What was that?" Rin asked tensely.

"Freddy," Maya said in a whisper so low, Rin had to strain her ears to hear her. "Oh no, that's Freddy."

 _"3,4, better lock your doors~"_

"We need to go," Rin said immediately. "If we stall around too long, he might catch us before we一"

"No, you go," Maya said, shoving the sword into her hands. "I'm not fast enough. I'll only slow you down. You can go there much faster."

"But一"

 _"5,6 grab your crucifix,"_

"Musa, he's coming closer, _GO_ _!_ "

Rin narrowed her eyes and frowned. "What about you?"

"I dealt with him before. I can handle myself. Now, _GO!_ "

 _"7,8, gonna stay up late~"_

Rin let out a sigh of frustrated sigh and raced off. Honestly. First Sera, now Maya. Who's next on the list?

 _"9,10…"_

Rin glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Maya collapsing, a dark haze hovering over her. She gritted her teeth. _Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs,_ Rin thought exasperatedly, _Ridiculously noble, the lot of them._

She kept going.

 _"Never sleep again."  
_ **  
**

* * *

Rin was almost there now, she just needed to keep going. Her new injuries from bumping into Killers made her wince, but it was nothing compared to when she got shoved off the school rooftop. They still have no idea how she was still alive.

Still, the pain from her injuries was impossible to ignore (especially the hatchet in her elbow), and she was tempted to stop and rest for a bit, but it was only her determination to prevent a life from ending that she kept going. She could count on her hand of anyone that deserves to be eaten by spiders, and none of those people were Ariza.

"Five more minutes~ Hurry up!"

Rin immediately shot away, a cloud of music notes following her feet. She needs to hurry, or else Ariza will be the first death. That still gives her shivers down her spine. To see another death… the last death she saw was Sera, and it wasn't peaceful.

Rin slammed the door open. Jesse was pacing, occasionally glancing at Ariza with an anxious look. Ariza was nervously fidgeting, the humongous spiders crawling around her. They looked up when they heard the door slam open.

A look of pure joy took over Jesse's features as she ran over and gently took her sword from Rin's grip.

"Renee has found and handed the sword to Jesse! Congratulations! You won! Please regroup and head back to the Living Room!"

Rin looked up and frowned. She clearly remembered she never used her actual real first name. She remembered she was called Rin.

 _"Oh? So Rin can stand up for someone! What a pleasant surprise!"_

Then一

 _"It's cute to see Rin standing up for someone, really. But I don't like being treated badly. You're lucky that knife missed or you'll be dead right now._ _"_

She used her nickname back at that night… why use her real name now?

Rin's thoughts were soon cut off when everyone else, looking battered but okay, teleported into the living room, while Ariza freed herself from her web prison.

"Are you alright, Maya?"

She turned and felt regret bubble up in her stomach when she saw Maya with the worse injuries than everyone else. She had a broken leg, her limbs nearly removed from her body, and claw marks all over her back and stomach. She didn't want to leave her, but she had no choice. Damn Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Always so damn noble.

Rin tried not to show her regret, but some of it did because Maya glanced over at her and grinned while Aiden fussed over her.

"I'll be alright, Aiden," She laughed. "I just bumped into Freddy. Kicked him in the jaw and gave him a black eye so that evened the score," She beamed.

Her knuckles were red and bruised, so Rin assumed that it was true. Rin had to appreciate the joke. It cheered her up a bit. To know Maya didn't blame her. Of course, that might not be the same for Aiden, but he wasn't going do anything if he doesn't know and it seems Maya wants it that way.

"What happened to you?"

And suddenly, Ann was at her side, narrowing her eyes at the new injuries Rin gained, which made her nervous. Ann was a menace when it comes to injuries.

"Oh, leave her alone, Ann," Annabelle sighed as she came over with her long brown hair coated with blood and bruises on her neck and what looked like a meathook sticking out of her shoulder. Rin noticed she was carefully hiding the meathook from Ann's sight. "It's not like it's her fault she got those injuries."

"Yeah," Adrian said, bouncing over with the same shoulder injury and bruises as his twin. Rin noted with amusement that he forgot to hide it from Ann, which she didn't notice yet. "Look at responsible Anna! Even she's reckless enough to get herself injured!"

"Shut it, Adrian," Annabelle said, kicking him hard in the shin. That made Rin wince because Annabelle's kicks aren't gentle. At all.

"OW! What the hell?!"

"You deserve that one, you idiot. Do you never shut up?"

"Here they go again…" Ann, who miraculously forgotten about the injuries (much to Rin's relief) muttered.

Rin rolled her eyes and started walking out of the room, ignoring Angel and Petra ("What happened to you?" "I should be asking the same thing!") and Annabelle and Adrian's bickering.

The rest followed her.


	21. Third Intermission

_**A/N: There is font in the chapter, but as usual, FFN is a butt, so here's a link. foreverfairy . deviantart art / Rewrite-The-Lodge-Intermission-III-736311489**_

 _ **Just remove the spaces.**_

* * *

Like the last Hunting Game, everyone was all injured, but luckily, none of the injuries were that severe. Ariza had marks on her wrists, ankles, and waist that looked like webs. They were fairly easy to cover up, thanks to Ariza's sleeves, shirt, and pants, but it still made them uneasy.

The injuries were mostly uneventful, other than the fact that William got a reverse bear trap stuck on his head ("How do you keep getting bear traps stuck on you?" "I don't know!") and Jace got into an incident with Kate.

Jace was fine, but, much to Rin's amusement, Kate had kicked him in the crotch ("PFFFF一"). Kate had apologized, but she didn't look very sorry about it ("That was the most insincere apology I've ever heard," Angel said in amusement as Jesse and Petra roared with laughter).

So, with some new scars, they had a furious pillow fight that lasted for seven straight hours, before declaring Rin ("Drop the stupid code names, please. It's Renee or Rin. Choose one,") as the winner (Rin attacked from behind and was able to take out most of the Deviants, the Order, and Adrian. He was still sulking about it) and decided to do their own thing for the rest of the day.

Ann was browsing through the TV channels with a bored look on her face. The Blaze Rods, Angel, and Adrian were playing Dead By Daylight, with Adrian as the Killer (Rin had to laugh at the number of swears coming from her friend).

Anna and Seri were spread out on the biggest couch, sleeping ("Don't bother them," William said quietly, "They look exhausted,"), with Olivia and Petra looking close to doing the same.

William and Kate were having a pun contest, with Jesse and Tacey joining in every once and a while, much to her friends' dismay and exasperation. Poor Lukas. He was laying in Jesse's lap, so he had to hear those puns whatever he liked it or not.

Axel and Jace were playing a card game with cards that rocket to the ceiling every five minutes and explode (" _Now_ you guys blow up something?!") with Mason watching with mild interest.

Annabelle and Ariza were chattering away (Rin suspected it was about their interests in writing and literature) in the back, gesturing with their hands and occasionally pouring over notebooks.

Rin, herself, was watching The Blaze Rods, Angel, and Adrian play and their hilarious commentary while writing her reply to Aaron's letter.

"Ha!" Angel shouted with triumph, "Get your non-existent bits somewhere else, you noob Killer!"

"Oi!" Adrian said indignantly, "I'm just getting started! You haven't seen anything yet!"

"Exactly!"

Rin rolled her eyes. She watched Adrian play in the past as a Killer and he wasn't exactly a noob. Still, it was a good way to deflate his ego.

"D**kless shitmonger! You barely even touched me!"

A very good way to deflate his ego.

"Hey! Stop juking me!"

Rin snorted. Aiden, Gill, and Maya were laughing next to them, working on generators as Adrian screamed with rage. She turned back to her letter and continued writing.

 _ **Dear Aaron,**_

 _ **Congrats on the wedding! I knew you can do it! I'm so happy for you two! Tell Aph I'm coming. I'm definitely not missing the wedding. Can I bring a few friends along?**_

 _ **I'm excited to meet your friends. But if one of them tries anything, I'm packing up. So tell them that alright? I don't want to leave the wedding when one of your friends is being a pervert.**_

 _ **Tell Melissa I send my love back and mom that I'm doing fine on my own. I'm okay, I'm healthy, and I can fight monsters with ease. Don't ask.**_

 _ **As for being apart of the family again, well, I don't know. I still hate Derek, and it seems impossible for me that Derek wants me back as a daughter. I spent so long as the "Unwanted Daughter" that it just shocked me.**_

 _ **Anyway, I'll think about it. I have friends that acted as my family this entire time and I don't want to leave them. I mean, I know they can**_

 _"一we are here to announce that a group of twenty-one people mysteriously disappeared."  
_

Startled, Rin accidentally snapped her quill in half, miraculously not ruining the letter with ink blots. Rin took no notice of this, as she stared at the TV in disbelief. What the…?

Everyone thought the same as her. Seri and Anna snapped awake, Olivia and Petra snapped into attention, Axel and Jace stopped their card game, Adrian, Angel, and the Blaze Rods stopped playing their game, Mason stopped watching the card game, William, Kate, Tacey, and Jesse stopped their pun contest, Lukas slipped off Jesse's lap, and Annabelle and Ariza went silent. Ann's bored face turned to a look of shock as she gestured for them to come closer, which they obeyed immediately, ignoring the remaining cards exploding to the ceiling.

 _"After eight months of inactivity, another group of people went missing all at once, and it seems very interesting that eleven of the missing people are our precious Order of the Stone: Jesse, Jace, Petra, Axel, Lukas, Olivia, and Angelina, along with their friends: Aiden, Maya, and Gill."_

The mentioned eleven shared a shocked look as the screen showed pictures of them smiling at the camera.

 _"The ten other individuals are mariosonicfan16, fighter33000, Anna-The-Cherry, Seriblaze, Berry-O-Pokemob, ArizaLuca, coughandcolds, Foreverfairy, Annabelle and Adrian Grant一"_

Each of the mentioned nine straightened up every time their name was called.

 _"一and possibly the most interesting person on this list, Renee Joanne Lycan, the youngest daughter of the CEO of the Lycan Corporation."_

Rin cringed visibly in her seat when everyone turned to look at her as a picture of her seventeen-year-old self was shown on screen. The picture was fourteen years ago, but that doesn't mean she was unrecognizable.

"You're the一" Tacey began in shock, but the TV didn't let her finish.

 _"We still don't know why Miss Lycan is along those twenty-one missing, but it is known that all of them are said to have gone away for a week of relaxation. It's been twelve days and they're still missing. Here is an exclusive interview we managed to get with Miss Lycan's family."_

The screen switched to show her family. Rin hissed angrily at the sight of several reporters in front of her former house and family, who were standing in the doorway. Disowned or not, nobody harassed her family like that.

 _"So tell me," said one of the reporters, pointing a microphone at Aaron, "What do you think made your sister go missing? Is it because of your ultima status一"_

"How did they find out?" Rin blurted out in shock, "Dad made sure nobody found out we're werewolves!" Rin was so shocked, she didn't notice the slip-up.

"I don't know, Rin," Annabelle muttered, "I don't know…"

 _"一or is it because of your recent engagement?"_

 _"I don't know, okay?!" Aaron said, sounding distressed as he pulled at his hair, "I sent a letter to her on the day she vanished, wondering why the hell she didn't respond after 4 days because she replied very quickly, then this mess happened, and一 and一"_

 _"Easy there, Aaron," Melissa said softly as she reached out and pulled Aaron away from the reporters, turning her back against them._ Rin lived with her long enough to know that she was crying.

 _"Letter? Why letter? Why don't you call her or text her? Don't you have her phone number? Can you call her now?"_

Rin narrowed her eyes dangerously and sneered at the screen in disgust. Oh, those damn, tactless, brainless reporters. How she wished to claw their eyes out for being so tactless and nosy.

 _"I don't have her phone number," Aaron said quietly, "She doesn't have mine either. We always wrote letters because she didn't want Dad to see her phone number."_

 _"Why一"_

William frowned at the screen in disapproval. "It isn't any of her business. Why does she think she has the right to nose around family matters?"

"Exactly. The family of a corporation fighting," Jesse said dryly. "It'll make a good story. No reporter wants out of that."

"That's sick."

 _"That enough,"_ _her father 一 no, no, no一_ Derek _said firmly_. Rin has never been so thankful for his presence. _"That's all for today一"_

Another microphone was forced in front of his face by another reporter, "Do you think Renee will survive this?" asked the reporter eagerly and oh, Rin wanted to knock out all three of her gold teeth. "Do you think she'll come back?"

Rin stiffened in anger because she wasn't the only one who was missing. She was fine staying out of the spotlight and in the shadows. Apparently, everyone thought so too. It showed on their faces.

 _Derek fell silent, a pained look in his eyes as Rachel sobbed behind him. Finally, he said, "I never bonded that much with Renee一 don't you dare ask why 一 but what I do know is that she can survive. She can take care of herself and she's the smartest out of all my children. She's always been like that. She'll come back with a smirk and a laugh. Now go and run off to bother someone else. Good day."_

 _He slammed the door in their faces._

 _"That's all for today folks! We'll come back with an interview with friends of the Order of the Stone tomorrow at 10:00 AM."_

Ann slowly reached out and turned off the TV. Everyone immediately began chatting about the info from the news.

"We've been missing for twelve days!"

"But it's only been four days since we arrived! We arrived on the same day too!"

"Does that mean time goes faster outside?"

"We can't test it out, remember? We're stuck here!"

"How long is one day outside for us?"

"Eight hours…"

Twenty pairs of different color eyes turned to look at Olivia, who rolled her eyes at the silent question and said, "If twelve days for them is four days for us, then three days is one day. Since a day is twenty-four hours, you divide twenty-four with three and get eight. So one day is eight hours."

"How you enjoy math, I still have no idea why," Axel muttered under his breath, which made Petra snort with laughter.

"Shut up, Axel. It's not the time," Jesse said, then got into Leader Mode again, "It's about midnight right now (woah, I didn't know we were up that late), and in eight hours, it's another day for them, which is 8 AM for us. So wake up at 8 AM so we can get more information. Is that alright?"

There was a chorus of agreement as they hurry off to the dorms, except Rin. She stared at the unfinished letter, then at the clock. She quickly began finishing her letter, wrote her number on the back, and send it off, before leaving the living room.

 ** _visit me, but I lived with them for so long, it just feels weird without them arguing in the kitchen._**

 ** _I know about that I'm missing along with other people by the way, and everyone's here. Shakened, but okay. It's just that you can't locate the lodge we're in. It's hidden. I checked the first day we were trapped here._**

 ** _We'll be out as soon as we can. Don't assume all of us will be alive and uninjured because there's a chance one of us will get a few injuries or worse. I love you, and I hope we'll see each other soon._**

 ** _Lots of love,_**

 ** _Rin~_**


	22. The Search for Aiden's Scarf

Angel was hungry when she blinked awake. Because of that, and that she's a morning person, she couldn't sleep no matter how many times she rolled over. She sighed to herself and kicked off her gold blankets, catching sight of the time as she did so.

It was 7:00 AM. Darn. Angel was feeling a bit sore from the pillow fight they had yesterday. It was surprisingly violent. But still, it was fun. Maybe they can do it again.

When Angel entered the kitchen, she saw Seri hovering over a jar of cookies, wearing a slightly manic grin that Angel associated with Axel when faced with hundreds of cakes.

"Good morning," she greeted. Seri looked up.

"Good morning," Seri said, smiling. "Why are you up? There's only an hour until the news comes on."

"I was hungry," Angel said, "and I'm a morning person. It drives everyone mad when I wake them up at 6:00 AM," she added. Seri laughed. "What about you?"

"Same as you. Want a cookie? There are tons in the cupboards," Seri said excitedly. "There's chocolate chip, raspberry, super, snowball, peanut butter, raisin, and so much more!"

Angel suppressed a snort. Seri and Axel could get along very well with how they're obsessed with sweets.

"Raspberry, please. I'm surprised you didn't come here earlier," Angel remarked as Seri reached for the jar with raspberry cookies.

"Ann asked me not to raid her kitchen on the first day," Seri said sheepishly as she handed Angel a raspberry cookie. "Said she didn't want to sic Ra—er, Annabelle on me."

Angel immediately knew why Seri didn't raid the kitchen for cookies after the first day and didn't voice it. "I see… who else is awake?"

"Kate, William, Tacey, and Mu—Renee," Seri said, hastily correcting her slip up. "I am not going to get used to calling them by their real names… anyway, Kate, William, and Tacey are in the training room, and Renee's in the living room, surrounded by documents. I think she's been there since last night."

"Why?"

Seri shrugged, "I don't know. She was asleep when I found her and I really didn't want to wake her up, so I left her a plate of cookies. Not cookie clip though. You can check on her if you want."

Angel was curious about why Renee didn't sleep and being the mother hen she was, she decided to go and check on her.

* * *

She found Renee sleeping with her head in her arms and her long hair up in a messy bun with a blanket resting on her shoulders. There were documents spread out over four tables and a plate of cookies next to her. There was also a letter under one of Renee's hands, but Angel didn't want to read it without her permission. Angel reached out to pinch Renee's neck (that always worked with everyone) when one of the papers caught her eye.

MISSING

Ingrid Connors

Last Seen: Near Aurora Mountain

Missing Since: May 21, 20XX

May 21… wasn't that nearly eight months ago? Angel recalled from the news yesterday that there was another group that vanished. And Aurora Mountain… that's the mountain nearby…

She decided to look more into it. Unlike them, Ingrid Connors vanished along with ten others. Venka and Sven Apostolova Dinerva, Annabelle DaVille, Kassum Hariri, Ted Tyler, Daniel Booth, Jay McKnight, Rashid and Sera Hariri, and Angela Connors.

There was another list of a vanished group, but the list was under Renee's other hand, and Angel didn't feel like explaining why she was nosing around.

She searched through the documents and discovered most of the documents weren't documents at all. No, they were Renee's notes in her neat, curly handwriting, written in Latin. Thankfully, Angel understood it thanks to her uncle.

 _Group Disappearances: Connected?_

 _4-8 months apart_

 _Eliza and others: Nova Mountain_

 _Ted and others: Aurora Mountain_

 _Our Group: Esther Mountain_

 _Mountains are near each other_

 _Mountains have names relating to the night sky_

 _Mountains have strange histories_

 _Black Musical responsible for disappearances?_

 _What is her motive? Why does she want to keep us here?_

 _What is the connection between the disappearances?_

 _Is she the reason the group disappearances happen?_

 _What is going on?_

"Snooping, I see?"

Angel startled and dropped Renee's notes. Annabelle was leaning against the doorway, raising an elegant eyebrow at the human.

"Ah, sorry. Was curious," Angel said sheepishly, stepping away from Renee.

Annabelle smiled, "It's alright. I did it a few times in the past. Just remember to put back the notes, though. Rin hates it when you snoop around her research."

That just made Angel wince. At least Renee didn't wake up while she was reading her notes.

Annabelle walked over to Renee and tightened the blanket over her shoulders, narrowing her eyes on the notes. "Dear Hecate… Rin had a brainstorm… I never saw her write so many notes…"

"You mean she near wrote this much?"

The Succubus shook her head, "No, the most she writes can fill about one table. Damn, wish I can read Latin… I'm really curious what gave Rin such a brainstorm…"

Angel glanced at the notes, "They're mostly dates, questions, and connection the group disappearances with each other."

Annabelle raised her eyebrows in surprise, "You know Latin?"

Before Angel could answer, Axel walked in and answered for her.

"Yeah," he said, yawning. "Her uncle got super offended when her dad remarked that he doesn't seem to be the type of person to be fluent in Latin. So her uncle spoke to baby Angel in Latin for _months_ and it drives her dad up the wall. Then somewhere in baby Angel's mind soaks it up and remembers it forever and never mentioned it."

"Oh yeah," Olivia said as she walked in, rubbing her eyes. "I remember. Imagine our surprise when she easily translates the Latin books I got for my birthday."

"That's a very interesting story," Annabelle remarked, smirking when Angel scowled at both of her friends ("Answering questions for me now, eh?"). "Rin learned Latin so we couldn't read her notes."

As everyone came in, yawning and stretching (in Kate, William, Tacey, and Seri's cases, chattering away), Renee still hasn't woken up. Adrian, Annabelle, and Ann advised them not to wake her up, as she can literally blow up their heads with sound (Angel didn't want to know how they know that).

The news started without Renee waking up. An hour and a half passed without anything interesting happening. However…

 _"We are here to announce that we have received word from one of the missing people from yesterday."_

"Wait, what?!" Tacey blurted out. Angel didn't blame her. She was just as shocked and from the looks of it, so is everyone else.

 _"Renee Joanne Lycan—"_

Twenty pairs of different colored eyes turned to the sleeping woman at once.

 _"—has sent a letter to her brother, congratulating him on the engagement, telling him that she's definitely coming, before asking to bring a few friends and to have his own friends keep their hands to themselves."_

Despite themselves, they couldn't help a loud snort of amusement.

 _"She does on to ask Aaron to tell her sister and mother that she loved them and that she's healthy and fine on her own. Skipping over family matters that we are unfortunately not allowed to say—"_

"'Unfortunately'," Kate said coldly. "Why is it so 'unfortunate' when it's a private family matter? Are they really that nosy enough that they have to be told not to gossip about family matters?"

"If you think this is bad," someone said sleepily, which turned out to be Renee. "Then you should have seen it when I ran away."

She looked so resigned and miffed at this, Angel didn't know whatever to laugh or to curse nosy reporters.

 _"—_ _but the next part tells us that she and the other missing members of the group are aware that they are missing. The Lodge that they are trapped in is unplottable, which means we can't locate it._ "

"What?!" Jesse yelled, sounding annoyed. "Then there's no use in calling our friends and family for help!"

Lukas patted her back reassuringly. It was amazing to see the change between the first day and now. To think Lukas was asking Angel for advice to ask Jesse out.

 _"The letter ends with 'Don't assume all of us will be alive and uninjured because there's a chance one of us will get a few injuries or worse. I love you, and I hope we'll see each other soon,' sighed Lots of Love, Rin."_

"Rin, you couldn't be more optimistic?" Angel heard Adrian mumble to Renee, whose hair was slowly coming down out of its messy bun.

"There's no reason to be," she said loftily, and she didn't say anymore.

 _"Now, where are they? What is with this ominous message? We still don't have answers, and we may find out more soon. Yesterday, we promised to have interviews with friends of the Order of the Stone. However, reporters say that they were banned from BeaconTown."_

"Good," Jace said nastily. "Get the fuck off our town and never harass our friends or else we'll come after you."

This, from the looks of it, surprised the Deviants and the assistants (should they call them that?).

 _"So, unfortunately, we don't have an interview for you. See you tomorrow at 10:00 AM folks!"_

"Renee Joanne Lycan," Ann said icily as soon as the TV switched off. "What on _Earth_ were you thinking?! You knew what she said and yet you still did it?"

Renee's lips twitched. "She said we're not allowed to ask for help."

"Exactly, so why—"

"Oh, you son of a bitch," Adrian said abruptly, laughing. "You didn't ask for help, you told them about our situation!"

The werewolf looked smug at this. "Well, she needs to look for loopholes before telling us. And even if she changed it now, it's useless because everyone already knows."

"Oh, I knew I should have checked for loopholes or else this happened! Darn!"

The TV turned on again, revealing The Black Musical in all her nonexistent glory. She was frowning, which was a bit disturbing sight since she was always smiling.

"But anyway, today's the fourth Hunting Game, please check for any missing possessions or else you will be more than missing!"

Angel merely grimaced and reached for her pockets. She was slowly getting used to The Black Musical's psychotic antics to care. However, she barely placed her hand inside when Aiden's shout of alarm stopped her in place.

"My scarf! It's gone!"

Angel was gobsmacked. She can kinda understand the earring (if the person's distracted, you can easily steal it), the bow, and the sword, but Aiden's scarf? It was around his neck and she literally saw it seconds ago— _how?!  
_

"That's right!" The Black Musical said jovially, unaware of the confused thoughts spinning in Angel's head. "Aiden's scarf is the item for this Hunting Game!"

The Black Musical was immediately replaced by Aiden's scarf. Angel still remembered the day when Maya gave him the scarf. It was a simple red color with an ocelot playing with a blaze rod stitched onto it. It was a bit rough around the edges but Aiden loved it. It was very fitting in Angel's opinion.

"Oh!" Angel heard Maya gasped.

"And now for the victim…" She smiled at the looks of horror and fear on everyone's faces. "Let's wait, shall we?"

A loud scream happened almost immediately after. Chains and shackles dragged Maya away despite her vicious struggles. Then, a shackle closed around Angel's neck. Her mind flashed to the grinder and her breath hitched from panic. She clawed desperately at the shackle as they were dragged away.

* * *

"OW!"

Angel was dropped roughly on the ground. She rubbed her neck, remembering how she slowly lost consciousness, losing air as she dangled above the grinder…

An arm suddenly snaked around her shoulders, and she didn't have to turn to know that it was Jace. He got up, dragging her with him.

"Lina, look…"

She was about to turn to shove him for using that blasted nickname, but she followed where he was looking and stopped. Forget the nickname—the sight before them was more important.

Maya was on top of a 20 feet long platform, pulling at the chains that have yet to release her. There was a fence surrounding the platform, with the space between the platform and the fence ten feet wide. What made the sight so bizarre was that there was a gigantic ocelot inside, prowling around the platform, hissing at Maya occasionally.

Everyone else arrived by now. Olivia went straight to them and placed a hand on Jace's should. The curiosity in her eyes told her she was curious what the trap is about.

The TV screen appeared and switched on, showing The Black Musical.

"Welcome everyone, to the Claw Room!"

Angel's went to her hairline. Claw Room? Sp the trap was something with claws— _oh… no…_

From the way Olivia blanched, she got it too.

"You are to find Aiden's scarf and bring it to Aiden before the hour runs out. If you don't, that platform will be lowered, and those claws will rip through Maya's body!"

Angel saw Maya dramatically paled. She didn't blame her; having a cat rip apart your fresh is very unsettling.

"Anyway," The Black Musical sighed, clapping her hands. "Please go to your teams, everyone. Yes, Angelina, you can go to Jace and Gill.

Angel snorted as Jace lead her to Gill. It's not like she had a choice anyway. All the teams are full except Jace's team.

"So we're finally a team," Gill said, grinning, though it was a bit forced. "I was getting a bit impatient."

She just rolled her eyes. "Oh shut it. I just never seen to stay on the same team. You alright, Gill?"

"Yeah, just uneasy."

Angel's eyes softened. "Don't worry. We'll save Maya."

"I hope so _…_ "

But as they walked to the black circles and got teleported, she had a horrible feeling that something was going to go wrong.

* * *

 ** _A/N: There is font in the chapter the page and it is right here, just remove the spaces:_** ** _foreverfairy . deviantart art / Rewrite-The-Lodge-Chapter-19-737573474?ga_submit_new=10%3A1522364763_**


	23. Fear and Monsters

p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""GILL, emWATCH OUT!/em"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"With a few creative swears, Gill ducked just in time to prevent a large blast of fire from roasting his head, courtesy of one of the black goop like monsters that were chasing them./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Thanks!" Gill shouted back./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel screamed with surprise and pain when she failed to dodge another blast of fire, which burned her right leg badly. "OW! Fucking shit!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Normally, Angel would swear in her head or mumble it (except Dead By Daylight, that is the only exception), but with the situation they were in, she felt that it was very appropriate to swear. She never swore so loudly in her entire life and that was something, especially since she had a habit of screeching out creative swear words at the top of her lungs during Dead By Daylight./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""WOAH!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Jace had picked her up and placed her on his back, careful not to grip the burn too badly. /p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel started to struggle, "Jace, I'll just slow you down! Put me down this instant!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Sorry, but these things are dangerous and they might target you because of your injury, we can't risk anything!" Jace retorted. "Geez, do you even eat?"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""I do eat, thank you very much! You're just all muscle!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Come on, even Olivia can lift you up!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Work on the timing, guys. Huntress, Hag, and Nurse up ahead!" Gill cut in before Angel could say anything as he pointed to the Killers in front of him./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""What-?! Ah, emshit/emem!/em"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"A hatchet flew at her head, which she dodged with a bit of difficulty./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"She vividly remembered what happened in the last twenty minutes. They teleported inside a broom closet ("Do you think this is where Lukas and Jesse sneak off to make out?" "...I don't need that image in my mind while searching, Jace, smack him for me. I can't reach." "Roger." "emOw!/em"), got attacked by what seemed like even more Killers and gained a few more scars, found the scarf ("What is that hanging on the power beam?" "I don't know… what the heck, is that Aiden's scarf?!" "Holy shit, it is!"), then got attacked by monsters that don't seem to be affected by their weapons, kicks, and punches. They wasted too much time trying to lose them. If they don't get to Aiden in time, Maya's going to die, and at this rate, she will./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Her feeling was right. Something did go wrong. Why was this Hunting Game a lot harder than the other three? If The Black Musical can make it harder for them, why did she wait until now to do it? What is she gaining from this?/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Why Maya? Why do it to Maya of all people?/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel remembered how The Black Musical chased after her, how she shot her in the leg and shoulder, how she hanged her on a meat book, how she chose her as the first victim, how she dropped her a mere inch away from the spikes in the grinder, how she seen to especially glare at her and her friends when they discovered the letter loophole…/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"What did The Black Musical had against her and her friends? What did they do to deserve the hatred?/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel felt scared. She had lost her mom, dad, little brother, uncle, and so many others. She didn't want to lose Maya too…/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Just our luck!" Jace roared, pulling Angel out of her thoughts. "Three Killers and those things front and back!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Jace," Angel screamed suddenly, "DUCK!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""What—?"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""I said duck, not quack!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Jace finally understood and ducked. Angel swung herself around and used her legs to kick back one of the monsters, who decided to pound and, if not for Angel, would have burned Jace's head off./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Whew, close one. Thanks, Angel. Ooo! Hang on! I'm going to jump through this trapdoor."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"As Angel swung back around to her original position, her alarm bells went off immediately. As far as she knew, Jace doesn't usually think before he acts. "Jace, wait a min— WOAH!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"She immediately tightened her grip around Jace's neck as they jumped through the trapdoor, Gill going after them after closing the trapdoor just before the Killers and monsters pound on them./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""JACE!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;" /p  
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;" /  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;" /p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Jace landed roughly on the ground then hissed as Angel tightened her grip."OW! Angel, are you trying to strangle me?"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Oh, I'm sorry!" Angel hissed angrily. "You told me to hold on as tight as I can, and I did just that!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Jace spluttered in outrage, then said, "I didn't mean that tight! Just tight enough so you won't fall off!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Well, you should have been more specific then."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Can you guys please stop?" Gill said nervously. He glanced up at the trapdoor. "The trapdoor's looks like it's ready to blow up."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"He was right. The trapdoor was shaking from the force of the Killers' and monsters' attacks. Angel was honestly surprised the trapdoor didn't break./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Jace sighed and adjusted his grip on Angel. "Alright. Let's find an exit and fast. There are only thirty minutes left."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""emFuck/em. Yeah, let's hurry," Angel said. "By the way, why did you choose a passageway to the Chamber of Secrets of all things?"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""For your information, this passageway was the closest one to us," Jace said, giving Angel a strange look. "And you're too obsessed with Harry Potter. Sure this place is creepy and wet, but it doesn't really look like the Chamber of Secrets."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel sent him an annoyed look. "Well, it looks like it to me. Look, there are snakes engraved on the walls. And there's some more over there— WHAT THE HELL?! THEY'RE ACTUALLY ALIVE!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"And she was right. The snakes were slowly moving off the walls, looking like the monsters that attacked them before. They slithered around them, raising their large heads. At first, Angel didn't know what they were doing, but that's before she saw the nostrils flared./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"emThey're sniffing for humans/emem,/em Angel realized. emThey can't see, so they have to rely on their sense of smell… Maybe even motion…/em/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"She dearly hoped the snakes don't smell them. Apparently, so did Gill, as she heard him muttering "Please don't smell us, please don't smell us."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Unfortunately for them, they did./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"The largest snake's tail lashed out and smacked Jace in the face, causing Angel to fall off and hiss when a large boulder hit her burned leg. The tail lashed out again and smacked Angel into a larger boulder. She felt her head explode with pain and her vision blurred as she landed on her side, surrounded by boulders, her hair fanned out and damp, and her clothes ripped and covered with blood./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"She heard Jace shouting in panic, saw his blurred form running around the rocks, saw Gill's form dodging the snake's tails and fangs, felt her leg flared up in pain as another boulder landed on it, heard Jace shouting for help—/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel weakly looked over a boulder./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"A black blur shot out of nowhere and began hitting the snakes with rapid speed, slashing them apart into tiny pieces with a long stick thing. Angel dimly wondered how the blur managed to harm the snakes./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"A moment later, the snakes were nothing but piles of black gloop. Angel's vision cleared and saw Renee standing in the middle of the mess, flicking the gloop off her spear. She looked over to something that Angel couldn't see and jumped over a few rocks and boulders, her wolf ears and tail swishing in the air. She was out of sight now./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Are you guys alright?" she asked. Angel heard running, and lifted her head higher and saw Mason, Ann, and Ariza running behind her, each and every one of them covered in black goop and red blood./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""We're fine," said Jace's voice. He sounded tired and strained from pain. "Where's Angel? She was thrown somewhere after one of those things smacked her away."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel lifted up her hand and called, "I'm over here!" She couldn't stand up due to the boulder on top of her leg./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"The boulders around her were immediately tossed to the side to reveal Renee standing over her, her brows furrowed./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""You look awful," Jace said bluntly as he came over and shoved the boulder off her leg./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Geez, thanks, Jace," Angel muttered. She lifted her injured leg. "I swear, this leg is cursed. I can't even count how many times it got injured. emOw/em, I think I just smacked my head against a rock…" she said as a pair of strong hands grabbed her sides and lifted her up. A glance at the jacket told her it was Gill./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Come on," He said. "The question as to why Renee can harm those monsters when we tried literally everything can wait. Where's the nearest exit?"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Ann pointed to a pair of tunnels to their right. "Over there. Order in tunnels to get there is up, down, right, left, up, and that should take you there."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel opened her mouth to thank Ann for directions when Mason's alarmed shout caused them to jump in shock./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""I think you need to do now! There's more coming!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"True to Mason's word, the monsters were creeping through small cracks and heading right towards them. A loud CRACK followed, and the three Killers and the monsters that were chasing them before jumped down. They were surrounded./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Go! We'll hold them off as long as we can!" Ariza shouted. "Take Renee with you just in case you're running out of time!"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel's eyes widened. She knew they can fight against the Killers but what about the monsters? Renee's the only one so far who can harm and kill them. What's going to happen to Ariza, Mason, and Ann if they take Renee with them?/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Renee was apparently thinking the same thing, as she was glancing at Angel's group, then her group, then again with a frown on her face./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""What about the monsters?" she asked. Definitely the same thing./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;""Knock them back, of course," Ann said indignantly. Whatever it was because she was offended that Renee had just implied they can't fight or that Renee thinks she can protect them forever, Angel didn't know. "Just because we can't harm them doesn't mean we can't knock them back."/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Renee glanced towards Angel's group and sighed, "I'll… I'll just leave the decision to them. What do you think?"/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"Angel internally cringed. If they take Renee with them, they might get to Aiden and save Maya faster, but Ann, Mason, and Ariza might get killed. The Killers' weapons may be enchanted not to kill, but she wasn't sure about the monsters…/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"On the other hand, if they don't take Renee, they might get to the Claw Room slowly and might be too late, but Ann, Mason, and Ariza will have Renee defending them from the monsters and get out of there with fewer injuries./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"emWhat to do, what to do?/emem /emAngel thought as she glanced at Jace and Gill, thinking of the devastation if they failed to save Maya./p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"emstrong "We'll take Renee, but be careful."/strong/em/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"emstrong "I'm sure we'll be fine on our own, but you guys can easily get overwhelmed./strong/em/p  
p style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #fffffa;"strongChoose Wisely~ /strong/p 


	24. Cave-In and Tunnels

**Take Renee**

"We'll take Renee," Angel said eventually, "but be careful."

She tried to see what Renee felt about this, but her face was unreadable, even as she sliced up a few monsters, who tried to attack them from behind. Angel didn't know what to think of her choice. Ann, Ariza, and Mason are putting their lives in danger so Angel's group can go to Aiden and here she was choosing Maya over them. Maya's going to die (notch, even thinking that makes her sick to her stomach) if they don't have Renee with them, but that still made her feel selfish.

As they ran to the tunnels, with Renee slicing up the monsters, she was about to apologize when Ariza looked up, her eyes widening with horror, and screamed, "INCOMING!"

"What is it?" Ann said immediately, raising her gaze to Ariza's trail of sight. She swore loudly.

"Cave-in!" Mason yelled. "Run!"

Before Angel could react, Jace tackled her out of the way of the falling rocks and into one of the tunnels, and since she was using Gill to support herself, he was pulled (roughly) with her.

The last thing she saw before the rocks completely blocked the entrance was Renee sliding under a large monster and slicing open its stomach, showering her with black goop.

* * *

Angel felt distorted. The blow to her head really did her some good (you can hear the sarcasm from space). It was only until a few minutes later that she realized she was pinned to the ground by Jace, who was, for your information, not light.

"Ow, ow, ow, get off me, Jace. My leg is near the place where it hurts, and if you don't get off me now, I will kick it—"

"Alright, alright, sorry!" Jace said as he quickly rolled off Angel before she does anything. He helped her up and called, "Oi! Gill, are you there!"

"I'm here," Gill grumbled, unsticking his face from the ground. "No thanks to Mister I-Like-To-Tackle-My-Friends."

Jace put his hands up in surrender. "Sorry! It's just that you two were standing under the rocks, and there was no way to get you guys out of the way."

"I'm just glad you managed to tackle us in the right tunnel," Angel said before Gill could say anything. "I thought for sure you were going to get us in the completely wrong direction with our luck."

Jace snorted. "Thanks for having so much faith in me." He glanced around. "We better hurry. We don't have much time." He crouched down in front of Angel.

She glanced up at him. Jace was afraid of the dark and would run around like a giant mad pigeon and scream in terror if they ever get stuck in total darkness. But since there were torches to light up the place so it wouldn't be total darkness, he wouldn't do that, and she won't have to worry. So she just rolled her eyes ("I know you did that!"), climbed on his back, and held on.

As they began to head out, they heard a voice call out.

 _"Guys!"_

Angel turned around, recognizing the voice immediately from the laughter and comments during the pillow fight yesterday, although muffled from the rocks. "Ariza?!"

"Yeah, it's me. Ann and Mason—" Ariza paused briefly but continued before Jace and Aiden noticed. Angel noticed, however, and made a mental note to ask her about it later. "—are making sure Renee won't get overwhelmed, so it's just me— WOAH!"

There was a loud _WHAM!_ It seems Ariza ducked just in time to prevent a monster from hitting her and knocking her out. The monster, instead, hit the rock wall and it wasn't gently.

 _"Be careful, Renee, that almost hit me—"_

 _"Sorry!"_ Renee's muffled voice called. There was a scream, a string of swears, and a battle cry as her voice faded away. Whatever was happening out there, Angel didn't want to know at all.

 _"Sorry about that,"_ said Ariza's voice, addressing the three this time. _"Something happened. Anyway, go to Maya without Renee. There's no way to get through that rock wall without causing another cave-in. Not to mention, there are the monsters. There's too many of them. More and more are coming, so even if we miraculously get through the wall, some will follow you and that won't be good."_

Angel's heart sank. So it wasn't a good idea to bring Renee. What if the cave-in didn't happen and Ann, Ariza, and Mason were overwhelmed and were killed? She shuddered at the mental image of their bodies.

"We understand," Gill said, stopping Jace from making a snide remark as well as pulling Angel from her thoughts. "Don't worry about us. Take care of yourselves."

 _"Alright. By the way, remember the order of the tunnels is— ah crap!"_

Something crashed into the rock wall. The blow was so strong, it blew them back several feet. Angel winced as she was knocked off Jace and crashed into a wall (mind you, it was painful). There was a loud shout of pain and what sounded like a blast of fire.

 _"Chat later!"_ said a new voice. It was Ann, and she sounded as though she was on the verge of panicking. _"We're getting a bit overwhelmed here! Killers are popping in now! Pig Lady and Doctor!"_

 _"What? Alright! I'm coming!"_

"Ariza, wait! What about the order of the tunnels?!" Angel shouted, but it was no use. Ariza was gone.

"Drat!" Gill said as he got up. "Let's go anyway! I don't think there's any time left!"

Jace nodded, picked up Angel again and placed her on his back, and he and Gill rushed off in the darkness.

* * *

"This is like the lava incident all over again," Angel mumbled onto Jace's shirt. She saw him wince in sympathy. Last year, during the portal adventure, they stumbled on a fire world, in which Angel shoved Petra out of the way of a lavafall ("I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" Petra had roared afterward) and burned her leg badly. Jace had to carry her until they get help from a girl who lived there.

"Yeah. The girl you guys bumped into was pretty, huh?" Gill said innocently. "I'm sure you don't mind getting injured so she can heal you again."

Angel flushed. A moment later, a frying pan came flying in his direction, which he dodged while laughing hysterically.

"Shut it, Gill, she was good-looking, but she was rude and only healed me after Ivor offered her some of his potions," Angel snapped. "I'm starting to regret coming out to you guys."

She wasn't exactly serious. After telling her friends that she was bisexual and attracted to females, they went out of their way to wear pink, lavender, and blue to support her. She made jokes about never coming out after they teased her, but she was never serious and Gill knows that.

Gill grinned. "Alright, keep your hair on."

Angel 'hmph' and said no more. Her emotions were out of control. She was scared, worried, nervous, and agitated, and as per usual, when she feels those emotions, she snaps at everyone. Her friends were used to it and took it in stride and even made jokes to distract her. It does work, but not when one of her friends is possibly going to die…

"Oh shit!" Jace swore suddenly, cutting off Angel's thoughts. "Huge monster up ahead!"

Angel looked up and blanched. Sure enough, there was a monster the size of a monster truck in front of them. They weren't going to be able to knock it away.

"Crap!" Gill said. He looked scared, which was understandable, because who wouldn't be afraid of this monster?

Jace's brow furrowed in thought, which made Angel feel a strong urge to back away from he does anything, and said, "Hey, Angel, do you still have the scarf?"

Angel rose an eyebrow. Usually, when Jace asks you a question during a fight, he's planning something stupid. He proved that when he jumped through that trapdoor earlier. "Of course I do. It's tied around my waist. Why?" She asked suspiciously.

"Good," Jace said, ignoring Angel's question. He whispered something in Gill's ear, who grinned and nodded, then turned back to the monster. "Tie it tightly and hang on, but don't strangle me this time."

Angel opened her mouth to ask what the hell was he planning to do when Jace suddenly lurched forward, causing her to squeak.

Jace jumped, landed on the monster, and before it could kill him, he jumped again and rolled in mid-air then landed on the ground. Thankfully, he didn't roll when he landed, because Angel would have smacked him.

She was used to rolling, front-flipping, etc… so that meant she was used to being upside-down, but that doesn't mean she'll stay calm when someone else's doing it with her _on their back.  
_

"I SWEAR TO NOTCH!" Angel screamed as Jace and Gill, who slid under the monster instead (she made a mental note to smack him later, because why didn't he warn her?), continued running. "YOU SEEM TO MAKE IT YOUR MISSION TO GIVE ME HEART ATTACKS!"

"Sorry," Jace said, not looking sorry at all," but that was the only way. Sliding will cause your bum to do red."

She turned red from anger and embarrassment and tightened her arms around Jace's neck as a warning.

"Ow, ow, ow! Okay, no more jokes on your bum— Ow! Sorry—"

"Guys, up ahead!" Gill shouted, pointing in front of them. The path had split into two. One showed a staircase that goes up, and the other showed a slide. "What's the order of the tunnels? I sort of forgot."

Jace swore under his breath. "Drat! The cave-in distracted me! Wish Ariza didn't get dragged away by Ann…" He turned his head so he can look at Angel in the eye. "What about you?"

Angel ranked her memory. The cave-in and attack prevent her from completely memorizing the order, but thankfully she remembered a few bits…

She opened her mouth—

 ** _"Up, up, down, right, left, up is the order."_**

 ** _"I'm not sure, but maybe it's up, up, down, left, right, up."_**

 ** _Choose Wisely~ :)_**


	25. Time's Up

**First Order**

"Up, up, down, right, left, up is the order!" Angel shouted. She was sure it was the order. It sounded like that. "Come on, hurry!"

"Right!" Jace shouted. "Do you still got the scarf? Good, hang on, this is going to be a bit of a bumpy ride!"

Jace rushed through the tunnels. Angel didn't doubt that he was a fast runner, their heists proved that, but today, he was extremely fast. He jumped over holes without stopping, slid down the tunnels, and dodged the monsters they bump into with ease. He was so fast that Angel tied the scarf around her wrist this time so she can see if the scarf decided to disappear and give them heart attacks.

That doesn't mean the other two didn't have his back though. Gill had to distract the monsters from Jace a few times when the latter's not paying attention, and once, Jace was so startled by another monster, that Angel pushed herself up, wrapped her legs around Jace's neck, spun around, and landed both of them on the ground so that they can dodge the attack.

"Normally, I would be mad that you used that move on me," Jace had grumbled as Gill cracked up when the monster face planted against the wall, "but today, I will make an exception."

"That's because I saved your life," Angel had snorted. She climbed his back and said, "Let's hurry! There are only twenty minutes left!"

Jace had just popped out of the tunnels when he crashed into someone, which happened to be none other than Jesse. She was covered with burns and slashes and winced every time she moved, but she was alive.

"Ow!" she said, rubbing her forehead. "Where did you come from?!"

"A tunnel, for your information," Jace said simply, removing his hand from his forehead. "Now if you excuse us…"

Jesse's emerald eyes drifted to the scarf tied around Angel's wrist and nodded. "Alright. Thank goodness you got the scarf. Are you alright, Angel?"

"Do I look like I'm alright?" Angel said. She had been knocked off when Jesse and Jace crashed into each other. "Yes, completely."

"What on the name of Notch happened to your leg?" Lukas asked as he, Axel, and Olivia came running towards them. His face was snatched up and dirty, and his hair was stinged at the edges, which Angel assumed it was because of the monsters. "It's like the lava incident all over again."

"It's an extremely long story," Angel said, "but I'll explain later. We have to hurry." She finished desperately The five-minute announcement had been a few seconds ago and she was getting really anxious.

Olivia eyed Angel's leg. "Okay, but please stay safe. Petra will bring you back to life and murder you if you ruin that leg. Watch out for Killers and those monsters too."

"Roger," Gill said as Jace picked up Angel again. They rushed off to the Claw Room.

Olivia was right to watch out for Killers and monsters. Twice, they had to duck in corners to avoid being seen by monsters. Twice, Angel had to use the same trick she used on Jace on Killers to stun them for a while.

The area around the Claw Room was completely crowded. By the time they reached the door, the dreaded announced came up and made their hearts stop.

"Time's up! Ooo, so close! I'm so sorry, everyone, but I'm afraid **you are far too late.** "

" ** _NO!_** " Angel screamed in despair. She shot off Jace's back, ignoring the searing pain of her burned and crashed leg and rushed off. Dimly, she noticed how Gill and Jace didn't stop her. Perhaps they were too shocked. Yes, perhaps that.

She threw open the door. The cat was gone, so was the cage, fence, chains, and platform. Angel didn't care about that. She focused on Maya laying lifelessly in Aiden's lap. Angel couldn't see Maya's face, but there was a puddle of blood surrounding them. She untied the scarf and ran inside.

She sank to her knees beside Aiden. Maya's icy blue eyes were staring at her, unblinkingly. Any life in her eyes vanished, leaving her gaze fixed, blank, and empty, which gave her the chills. There were deep, claw marks on her throat and blood dripping down her chin. The cat knew exactly where to kill her instantly. Blast that cat.

Maya is dead. She won't laugh as they play Dead By Daylight anymore, she won't roll her eyes and call Angel mom every time she scolds them anymore, she won't exaggerate Angel doing mom things, she won't do any of those things at all because she's dead.

"She didn't even get to say goodbye," Aiden said hoarsely. Tears were streaming down Aiden's face like waterfalls. Maya loved waterfalls. That thought made her even more depressed. "The moment the announcement was over, the platform lowered and the cage and fence disappeared, the cat attacked her."

Angel didn't understand why he was telling her this until she wiped away her tears and lifted her head and met Aiden's accusing gaze. Aiden must have noticed the scarf in her hands and automatically blamed her. She closed her eyes and braced herself.

 _SMACK!_

"It was _your_ fault!" Aiden spat out. He had slapped her so hard, her head snapped to the side. He flicked off the tears that got on his hand when he slapped her, stood up, and kept going. "If you were faster, Maya would still be alive! Why the hell do you have to be so damn slow?! You knew Maya could die if you don't get to the Room in time and yet, you were too late! Now Maya is dead and it's **your damn fault**! Do you not care for Maya?! Why do you never try even though you promised so many damn times?! I hate you! I wish we were never friends!"

Angel flinched. She was expecting all the blame and hate but the last part shook her up. She bit her lip until it bleeds and waited for more insults.

To her surprise, Aiden didn't say anymore, but there was a noise that sounded like a sword being unsheathed. Angel looked up, her eyes widening in horror and hurt as Aiden swung his sword down—

"AIDEN, _WHAT IN THE NAME OF NOTCH ARE YOU DOING?!_ "

It was all a blur. Jesse, who had ran inside a few minutes after the announcement, stepped in from of Angel and blocked the blow with her own sword. For a second, it was their duel in Sky City again, then Jesse shoved hard against Aiden's sword and sent it chattering out of his hand.

Aiden stared at it as realization slowly dawned on him at what he almost did.

"What the _hell_ is wrong with you?!" Jesse roared. Her eyes were hard emeralds staring into Aiden's soul and she was turning bright red from anger. "Killing another one of your friends does not bring Maya back, you blasted, celery eyed, idiot! It'll only give you one less friend! If I hadn't been there to stop you, Angel would be laying here, dead because of _you_! I don't care what excuses you have, It was bad enough that Maya's dead, what will happen if I wasn't there and Angel died by _your_ hands? Do you really want to change, or are you the Aiden I know from Sky City?!"

Jesse definitely hit a sore spot. Aiden never liked it when people mentioned the Sky City incident. He will always flinch and change the subject almost immediately. Aiden flinched violently and sank back into himself. A look of horror and guilt replaced the rage and hatred on his face.

"N-No, I'm not." He said quietly.

"And it wasn't her fault Maya died either!" Kate shouted. Her brown eyes were blazing with anger. "She tried her best! I've sure she was desperately hurrying Jace to get to the room! I'm sure she cared about Maya! What right to you have to blame her for Maya's death?!"

"I-I don't," Aiden said, cringing. "I'm sorry, I-I was just so upset."

"Upset?!" Petra said incredulously. "You snapped at Angel and nearly killed her! You call that upset? I'll call that mad!"

"Come on, Aiden, I know you're better than this!" Gill shouted. "What happened to our promise, huh?"

"You bastard!" Jace roared. "That was an all-time low for you! And I'm including the Sky City incident!"

Aiden flinched again.

Olivia stepped towards him and placed a hand on his arm. She looked upset too, and she was trying not to look at Maya's body. "Jace, please, I know we're all upset, but we need to calm down." She pleaded.

Jace stared at her for a few seconds, then turned away and glowered at the wall. Lukas wrapped an arm around Jesse and pulled her away from Aiden. Axel followed his lead and pulled away Petra. The tension that was so thick, it was as though you can grab and hold it.

"Angel," Anna cut in, directing all the attention to her. She blushed and said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Seri said. She was looking at Angel with pity and worry. "You're shaking."

It took Angel a moment to realize that her hands were shaking and she was crying even more if that was possible. She took a deep breath and stood up shakingly, ignoring William and Tacey's noises of protest (they were kneeling beside her after Jesse's blocked Aiden's attack. She didn't even notice them because of her shock) and looked down at her ruined tights and boots. Her clothes were stained with her and Maya's blood. She wanted to get the blood washed off immediately. It made her feel cold, numb, and dirty. Maya's body was still laying a few feet away from them.

It wasn't Aiden trying to kill her that shaken her up. She expected that. Sometimes, Aiden would switch to his Sky City persona when he's really angry and would snap out of it before he does anything. No, the thing that shaken her up was the look of rage and hatred as he swung the sword down. It was the same amount of hatred in his eyes when he looked at Jesse back in Sky City. The same hatred that he would scream at their duel. Did Aiden really hate her that much to give her that look?

"Angel," She snapped her head up, her eyes hardening to steel when she saw it was Aiden. "I-I'm sorry— I'm really am—"

Angel used the back of her hand to wiped her eyes away and looked at him straight in the eyes with a cold look and said three simple words that made him recoil and cringe. "Save your breath."

Ariza and Mason, who was standing by the exit, startled as Angel shoved past them to the exit and left behind tension and sorrow.

Renee, Ann, Adrian, and Annabelle shared a startled look because they were pretty positive Angel's eyes flashed gold.

Power was rising in her core.


	26. The Fourth Intermission

Rin: Aaron? AARON!

Aaron: What? Is something wrong?

Rin: Thank goodness… I thought you were asleep. Anyways, I got news. Bad news, unfortunately. You know Maya right?

Aaron: From sources, I know she used to be an enemy of the Order. Now, she's their friend right?

Rin: Correction — she was their friend.

Aaron: What? What do you mean?

Aaron: Wait a minute. The things you told me three days ago… for me at least...

Aaron: Maya's dead, isn't she?

...Rin is typing…

Rin: She is…

Aaron: Oh Irene… Are you okay? What happened?

Rin: I'm fine. I'm not sure about Maya's friends, however...

Rin: Well, a giant cat ripped open her throat. From what I heard, anything in the way of the cat's path was immediately removed after time ran out. She didn't even manage to say anything before she was murdered.

Aaron: My Irene…. That's horrible… I can't even imagine how her friends are feeling…

Rin: I do. Aiden blamed the person with his scarf and almost killed his friend from grief and anger. Now all their friends are ignoring him.

Aaron: He deserves it.

Rin: Aaron.

Aaron: Nobody deserves an excuse after trying to kill their own friends. It's just stupid.

Rin: I'm not even going to try to reason with you on this. Anyway, tossing that subject aside, I want, no, need you to promise me something.

Aaron: What is it?

...Rin is typing…

Rin: Don't tell anyone until you get to BeaconTown that Maya's dead.

Rin: I don't want the Old Order finding out Maya's dead because of the news.

Rin: Got it?

...Aaron is typing…

Aaron: Got it.

* * *

The fourth intermission was emotionally exhausting.

The Order and Gill were still furious with Aiden for almost killing Angel, and they refused to talk or look at him. Aiden didn't seem to notice this, as he stared absently at the wall in front of him.

Kate would have been glaring at him, but she was in the kitchen, which was where Angel locked herself in after the last Hunting Game, healing Angel's leg. Of course, that was after she healed everyone.

William, Tacey, Seri, and Anna went to the kitchen because a) the tension was too much for them, and b) Angel absolutely refused to let her friends in, so they wanted to keep her company.

Ann left to her room, claiming that she was going to sleep early, but Annabelle knew it was to research the shadows' kind because all of them never heard about the shadows that attacked them. She had samples of the shadows' black goop, so maybe she'll get some answers.

Mason went to bed early too, but Annabelle knew he wanted to avoid Ariza. Those two have been tense lately for reasons that Ann, Ariza, and Mason won't explain ("Give them some time," Ann had said. "I'm sure it'll work out." But she didn't seem so sure).

Ariza had pulled out her laptop from her bag to distract her from Maya's death, but she was fidgeting a lot and her fingers flew so fast, she kept making typos and swear every time.

Apparently, Rin had another brainstorm, because she had her hair in a messy bun, and was furiously writing on several pieces of paper. Her expression was so intense, Annabelle had to try her hardest not to crack up.

Annabelle and Adrian on the other hand, were both trying not to let the Persona Awakening from the kitchen faze them.

"She waking up, I can sense it," Adrian muttered. "I don't know who her Persona is, but she's waking up fast."

"Anger or the sense of protecting the innocent and her friends?" Rin asked in a whisper, not even stopping her writing.

"Both," Annabelle mumbled, low enough so that nobody except Rin can overhear, "she's really angry, at both Aiden and _Her_. She also wants to prevent anybody from getting killed again. But there's a problem. What will happen? Vivian is being suppressed somehow. What will happen to her if her Persona gets suppressed in the middle of the awakening? She might become one of the Lost."

"I don't know," Adrian said. He blinked and narrowed his eyes in frustration. "No, it's stopping. I don't know what's happening, but her Persona is being pushed down."

" _What?!_ " Rin demanded, looking up. She noticed everyone looking over at her in confusion and signaled to them that it was nothing. When everyone turned back around, she whispered, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I can feel it too," Annabelle admitted, "but if something's happening to her, we could hear it, and the Deviants would be running here, screaming about a problem by now if she became one of the Lost. She's alright."

"I see…" Rin frowned thoughtfully. Then she suddenly slammed down her quill, startling everyone, and said, "News is on. Let's see what's up."

* * *

"Are you sure you're okay?" William asked gently. When Kate shot him a look that screamed _'_ _What are you doing?!'_ , he mentally smacked himself. Of course, Angel wasn't okay. She just lost one of her friends. Heck, William doesn't even know what happened to the body. It was dragged away shortly after Angel stormed out.

William should know she wasn't okay. She sent the last few hours sobbing over her friend's death, screaming at Her for killing off her friend as Kate healed her leg, snapping at them every time they try to comfort her, and kept her face buried in her arms until Seri took out a few cookies and asked if she was hungry, which she was.

If Angel noticed the insensitivity, she didn't react, much to William's relief. She simply nibbled on raspberry cookies that Seri had given her (William still had no idea how Seri knew raspberry cookies were her favorite _and_ can calm her down). Her silver eyes had dull into a dark gray, which occasionally flashed with anger or sorrow.

"I don't blame you for not being okay," Tacey said gently. "I know I won't be. I lost my grandma about a year ago."

Angel still didn't speak, but she hummed in acknowledgment. Perhaps she was so affected by Maya's death, she couldn't bring herself to speak. She leaned back and took a glass of water from Anna, looking tired and guarded. Then her eyes flashed gold.

William recoiled. So did Tacey and Kate. Anna and Seri's eyes widened. Then they turned to each other, each eye holding the same question: _Did you see that?!  
_

Gold was the same eye color as Her _eyes,_ William thought, as Angel drank, oblivious to the silent conversation. He wondered what that meant. Would that mean something is corrupting Angel into something like _Her_? Could she be turning on them?

No, she wouldn't. William didn't know Angel very well, but she wouldn't team up with someone who killed one of her friends. She was too loyal. Her reaction to Maya's death proved that.

William signaled to the others to talk about the gold eyes later. They couldn't discuss this with Angel around. They understood immediately and looked away.

"They're arguing again," Seri said suddenly. She was standing near the sink, but she still looked shaken, and she kept glancing at Angel's eyes to make sure they were still her eyes. "I can hear them from here. It sounds like it's getting worse."

Kate shook her head, "I can hear them too. Somehow, the arguing is a lot worse than the silence." She looked as though she wanted to confront Aiden for losing control, but restrained herself.

"Should we stop them?" Anna said nervously. "It sounds like it's getting a bit out of hand…"

Angel shook her head and spoke up for the first time in hours. It made them jump. "You can stop Lukas, Gill, and Olivia, but you can't stop Jesse, Jace, Petra, or Axel." Her voice sounded hoarse from screaming and crying. "All of them are stubborn in their own way, but together they're unstoppable. I'll step in if it does get physical." Despite her words to not interfere, she glanced nervously outside.

William frowned. He hated fights. He was used to them (no thanks to Wilrus and Kate) but that doesn't mean he liked them. Plus, Angel spoke as though it happened every day. He looked outside and felt his eyes widen at the sight.

Jesse, Jace, Petra, and Axel were up to their feet, shouting at Aiden. William couldn't understand them, because they were shouting over each other so much, it was hard to hear bits of them. Lukas, Gill, and Olivia were up to their feet too, but they were trying to talk the four into stopping, but being shaken off every time. Annabelle and Adrian were warily watching the fight, looking ready to launch themselves off the couch to do who knows what. Ariza was at the back of the room, clutching her laptop like a lifeline. Renee was between the angry four and Aiden and was using her audiokinesis to shout over the four to try to get everyone stop, apologize to each other, and move on, but that clearly wasn't happening.

"ARGUING ABOUT MAYA'S DEATH IS NOT GOING TO HELP US GET OUT OF HERE. STOP. NOW!" She was shouting. It would have made William stop immediately, but Angel was right. The four were stubborn.

"They are getting physical," William said, watching with increasing horror as Jesse and Jace tried to get around Renee with their fists clenched. Angel didn't seem to hear it. She was too busy rubbing her head, gritting her teeth.

"Definitely physical," Tacey agreed. She shot Angel a look of concern and confusion. "Aren't you going to go stop them?" She poked Angel in the arm.

Angel snapped into attention immediately. "Huh? Oh, yeah." She said, her eyes flickering to gold, then back to silver.

 _Again?!_ William thought. Judging by his friends' faces, they noticed it too. He still doesn't know what it means.

She flicked something off her forehead that looked black, but it disappeared before they could get a good look at it. Then she walked outside.

William watched as Angel walked into the room, looking irritated. She tried talking a few times, then got frustrated when no one heard her. Heck, William couldn't hear her, and she was only a few feet away from him. It was then that Renee noticed her.

Renee didn't show any sign of surprise, but she snapped her fingers and stopped shouting. She must have manipulated the sound in Angel's vocal cords so that she could be heard. William covered his ears, knowing that it'll be loud.

Angel took a deep breath.

"ENOUGH!" She screamed. The shouting stopped, and everyone froze in place. "ARGUING ABOUT MAYA'S DEATH IS NOT GOING TO SOLVE THINGS—SO STOP THIS FOOLISHNESS AND GET OVER IT!"

William winced. Even with his ears covered, they were still ringing.

"Angel—" Aiden spoke up, but she shoved past him and ignored him. She must still be angry at him.

"MAYA JUST DIED—" Renee, who didn't seem affected by the shouting, though it may have to do with the headphones on her ears, shook out her bun and snapped her fingers again. "—and you all are arguing like little kids." Angel, whose voice was normal volume now, thank goodness, finished, her voice cracking up. "What will Maya think?"

"...Sorry Angel," Jesse said quietly after a long silence. "We just watched the news. They were talking to Ivor and the others about us and well, we got angry."

"That's an understatement," Angel said, sounding resigned. "But killing your friends _and_ arguing are both not worth it. I thought you both already knew that."

William didn't understand what she meant, but Jesse and Petra did. They winced when Angel glanced at them when she finished.

She rubbed her temple and flicked the black thing off her forehead again. William saw Renee narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to bed. Today's been a long day and I really want rest and you guys are not helping."

"Sorry, Angel," All her friends except Aiden, who looked down, muttered.

"Good night!" Seri called from behind William, which made him jump. It was followed by, "Don't let the bedbugs bite!" from Anna.

Angel turned around so her friends couldn't see her face and smiled brightly, which give William hope.

William felt someone tap on his shoulder and turned around. It was Tacey, and the look on her face made his hope die immediately.

"That was monster goop, or shadow goop, or whatever Ann called it," She said quietly. She pointed to the black thing on the ground as everyone in the living room sat down.

William's eyes widened, so did Seri and Anna's. "It is?!"

Kate nodded, looking serious. "And we think," she pointed to Renee, Annabelle, and Adrian, who were staring at the shadow goop with suspicion and horror, "that we should tell them."

* * *

 _"You know, Angel," Maya said mildly. "I'm quite jealous of you."_

 _Angel looked up from her book and raised an eyebrow. "Why? You have no reason to be jealous of me."_

 _"Your sister is better than mine."_

 _"Oh," Angel said, watching Maya wake away with a smirk, wondering what she was talking about. As far as Angel knew, Maya has no blood siblings. Aiden is her boyfriend, Gill and Lukas are more like her brothers, the rest of the Order are her friends, Petra is her best friend, and Angel is—_

 _"Wait a minute, I'm your sister in all but blood," Angel said out loud. She closed her book and ran after Maya. "Maya, get back here, you turd!"_

 _Maya's laughter sounded through the air as they ran through the town. Angel couldn't help but laugh too. It was just them for today. Everyone else was either busy or out for a few hours. The weather was perfect, the food was great, nothing can go wrong._

 _Except… it did._

 _The sun stopped shining. Waving townspeople vanished. Everything went silent. Angel stopped laughing and looked around. The atmosphere was green, and there were blood and coffins everywhere. Maya wasn't anywhere to be seen._

 _"Maya?" Her voice echoed in the silence. "I swear, if you're doing this on purpose to scare me, it won't be pretty… Maya, this isn't funny—where are you? Maya, please, I'm really scared… come out!"_

 _"WhY dIdN't YoU sAvE mE?..."_

 _Angel turned around sharply. It was Maya. There were claw marks on her throat, she was crying tears of blood, and her icy blue eyes looked dead and scared._

 _"Maya…?"_

 _"WhY wErEn'T yOu FaSt EnOuGh, AnGeL?..." 'Maya' spoke. She moved like a puppet and stepped towards Angel, who was too scared to run. "I tHoUgHt YoU wErE mY fRiEnD…"_

 _"I…"_

 _"YoU pRoMiSeD tHaT yOu'Ll PrOtEcT mE, AnGeL." 'Maya' continued stumbling towards Angel. "So WhY wErE yOu So SlOw?..."_

 _"Maya, I'm sorry," Angel begged. "I tried to get to you as fast as I can, but the round was difficult—"_

 _"No ExCuSeS…"_

 _Maya lunged towards her, her eyes turning black, her hands reaching for her neck as Angel's scream echoed through the empty town._

* * *

A black rose blossomed on caramel skin.


	27. The Fifth Hunt Passes

Adrian woke up to Ariza shouting "Wake up!" and banging on everyone's doors in a panic. He heard his twin sister groaning in irritation from her room. He knew her well enough that he knew she was trying to bury herself in blankets.

Adrian sighed and put on a shirt. It seemed all the females in their little group like sleep (Rin more so). The only difference was that Annie and Ann will be awake by the time they got to the bathroom. Rin is just dead to the world until she wakes up herself up.

Then he frowned, remembering the revelation last night. It was enough to make him tempted to lay down and sleep forever, oblivious of the dangers.

He shook his head out of his thoughts, and got up and stomped outside to see what's happening.

Ariza was still in her pajamas, but she didn't either didn't care or notice, because she continued banging on doors. Everyone was grumbling and stumbling out of their rooms, even people like Rin Dead-To-The-World Joanne Lycan were walking out of their rooms, rubbing their eyes. Adrian even spotted his sister peeking out the door.

Then Adrian saw Jesse looking around with worry and finally noticed that there was one person missing: Angelina Amari.

This worried Adrian. From what he heard, Angel was a morning person, the kind that is annoyingly cheerful when it's _4 AM in the morning._ Not to mention, all the Order are trained to be ready to fight at the slightest shout. All her friends were alert and ready to fight with their weapons in hand (Adrian did not want to find out why Jace had a metal baseball bat) — there's no way she won't be awakened up by Ariza's shouting.

That's when Ann ran out of her office.

"Ariza, it's 6 AM in the morning, why on Earth are you banging on everyone's doors like this? She demanded. She was wearing nothing but gray sweatpants, black socks, and a blue bathrobe, so it was kinda hard to take her seriously until she starts shouting.

Ariza turned to her and rambled off so fast, Adrian had to ask her to slow down three or four times.

"Went to the kitchen to get some food, saw the door open, went to check, room a mess, blood everywhere on the floor, searching everywhere — Angel's gone!"

The last part woke everyone up in an instant.

"WHAT?!"

* * *

 _"What the hell do you mean she's gone?"_

Jesse was panicking. It was bad enough that Maya died, but it was even worse that Angel _vanished from her room last night._ Jesse didn't know what to do. She's supposed to be the leader, she has to keep everyone safe and look what happened.

"Jesse, calm down! Shaking Ariza is not going to help this, you're just stopping us from getting answers!" Olivia shouted over the endless questions and shouts. "Ariza, please start over— what happened? How did you found out?"

 _"I told you!_ _"_ Ariza cried, looking distressed. "I went to the kitchen to get some food, saw her door open, thought it was strange and decided to check inside, and she's gone! Her room is a mess! Go check!"

Jesse shoved her aside ("Sorry!") and look inside. Ariza was right. Angel's room was a mess. Her blankets were everywhere, as though she used them to try to stall whoever's attacking her. Her notebooks were tore to shreds (Jesse spotted drawings of Aiden and Maya together, beaming, and had to look away), her books were (thankfully not destroyed or Angel will throw a fit) scattered all over the bed and floor, and the all the furniture except her bed, which was only slightly bent, were completely destroyed. There was blood on the floor, trailing to the TV, as though a body was being dragged.

"Ariza…" Jace's voice said slowly. He sounded shaky and afraid, but Jesse didn't blame him. "D-Did you move anything…?"

To Jesse's increasing horror, Ariza shook her head. "No… The moment I saw the blood, I searched all over the lodge for any clues that Angel might run out of her room to escape her attacker… there wasn't any…"

 _No evidence of a fight outside her room,_ Jesse thought, realization dawning on her. _Does that mean…?_

Jesse shook her head and furiously wiped at her eyes. There was still hope that she might be buried under the broken furniture, stirring weakly at the voices. She turned to Axel and Petra. If there was a chance Angel's dead body wasn't anywhere in the room, she was going to take it.

 _Help me,_ Jesse wanted to say, her emerald eyes that Angel (her heart wrenched) would fondly call Potter eyes were sad and pleading. _I can't do this alone..._

She couldn't speak from shock, but thankfully, they got the message. The two nodded at her and headed inside. She followed them.

She, Petra, and Axel lifted up the broken drawer, which was where the largest amount of blood was. She laid eagle-spread, blonde hair spread out on the floor, stained with blood, wide, horrified, blank silver eyes stared up at them, her mouth open in a silent scream. They were staring at Angel's decapitated head

Jesse screamed and backed away so fast, she knocked into Lukas.

 _"Oh, my Notch!"_

 _"What the hell?!"_

"I never even got to apologize for—"

"Aiden, please breathe!"

"WHO THE FUCK KILLED HER—"

Jesse sobbed into her hands as everyone started screaming and crying. She couldn't bring herself to look at the rest of the body to see if it was in pieces as well. The head was enough to make her break down.

Her breath hitched as she felt a pair of strong arms wrap themselves around her in a hug. Breathing into the scent revealed that it was Lukas.

She buried her face in his jacket.

They just lost Maya. She spent the entire night in Lukas' room, crying and smiling over memories of Maya because she had nightmares of her getting murdered, each of them even more gruesome than the last. Now they lost Angel, and now Jesse doesn't know what to do without imagining her head under the drawer—

"Hey," Lukas said softly. "I'm here.."

She felt Lukas' hand slip off her back and take her hand and squeezed it, which made her feel better and not for the last time, grateful for his presence.

"Angel told me to toughen up and stop stuttering around you when we were driving, you know," he said. "She's a tough girl. She probably did as much damage to whoever killed her."

Jesse swallowed and squeezed back. In her opinion, there was only one thing good about being trapped in the lodge was getting closer to Lukas. They didn't kiss yet, but Jesse had hopes… if they get out alive at least.

When she pulled away, she saw Axel holding Angel's body, which covered up in Angel's blankets. Her face was uncovered, but this time, her eyes were closed and her mouth was covered, which Jesse was thankful for.

Jesse felt her hands form into fists. "Come on… I-I can't stay here any longer…"

She wondered if they noticed her stutter, but to her relief, they didn't say anything about it and began walking to the living room.

Jesse mused that the long-nosed man she and Angel have been seeing in their dreams would be disappointed that the one person who has the advantage over _her_ is dead.

* * *

Rin: Angel's dead.

Aaron: You're joking. I thought she was already the victim of the first Hunting Game!

Rin: She wasn't a victim. She was murdered last night.

Aaron: What?!

Rin: I'm not even joking. She was in pieces under the drawer.

Aaron: What on earth happened?

Rin: Ariza went to the kitchen to get some food and noticed Angel's door open.

Rin: She went inside to investigate and saw the blood on the floor, then woke all of us up and told us what happened.

Rin: Jesse, Petra, and Axel went to search for any evidence of a body and found her head under the drawer. Jesse broke down, so Petra and Axel continued on and found her torso under the bed, her legs under the floorboards, and her arms behind the broken TV.

Aaron: Damn, I can't even imagine how her friends are feeling...

Aaron: Do you think it's her who killed Angel?

Rin: I'm positive.

Aaron: But what confuses me is why her? Jesse is the leader of the Order, not Angel. No offence to her of course.

Rin: I have a hunch…

Rin: Have I told you about Personas?

Aaron: You told me the basics.

Rin: Good, then you'll understand this even without the rest of information.

Rin: Angel and Jesse are both equally stubborn and a great believer in just

Aaron: ...Rin?

Aaron: Rin, are you okay?

Aaron: RIN?!

* * *

 _Jesse stared up at Aiden's white face as the giant ocelot prowled around him. It was cruel to put him in the same death trap as Maya. She wondered when she'll be ready to take her on...  
_

 _But she wasn't ready yet. The long-nosed man said so. She could barely remember her dream with him, but she remembered that for some strange reason, he said fire blocks fire. He also said she won't be able to do much with her._

 _Absurdly, Jesse found herself thinking that Angel never ever thought much about the long-nosed man. Sure, they would discuss it during the intermissions, but Angel would be distracted by why she wanted to kill them._

 _She gritted her teeth and turned to Gill, whose leather jacket was the item they have to find in the lodge._

 _"We'll try our best," she told Gill. "We'll avenge him if we fail. Just hang in there."_

* * *

 _"AIDEN! NO!"_

 _"Jesse, we're too late, h-he's dead!"_

 _"No! We just lost Maya—we can't lose him too! I don't care what Aiden did yesterday, he doesn't deserve to die!"_

 _"He didn't even get to say anything…"_

 _"That bitch! She knew that our grief will make us faster… she sent more of those monsters after us! Gugh—!"_

 _"Axel—!"_

 _"Oooh, good dodge~ But you might not be so lucky next time~"_

 _"Grrrr…"_

 _"How many more of us are going to die…? How many of us are going to be slaughtered until she's satisfied?..."_

 _"I don't know, Seri… I don't know…"_

 _"How cruel can she be to have him be murdered by the same thing that killed his girlfriend?!"_

 _"Cruel enough to do this. Look, that body's already being dragged away."_

 _"Did you have to point that out?!"_

 _"The Order are already suffering the loss of three friends!"_

 _"Pointing that out will make it worse!"_

 _"And we don't want that."_

 _"They're right, Mase. Come on. Let's get out of here. I need to discuss something with the twins and Rin."_

 _"Huh? Oh right, that thing."_

 _"..."_

 _"Gill, are you coming?"_

 _"Yeah, just give me a second."_

 _"...alright then."  
_

* * *

When she woke up in this strange, foggy, world, she wondered who she was and why she was here.

She heard her breathing and her grunts of pain, the headache that continued to pain her irritated her to no end. Her blood slowly dripped down her forehead, her hair stained with red.

As far as she knew, she had no name, no friends, no backstory, etc... None of which she remembered anyway. All she remembered was a face of a smiling woman that looked just like hers and a laughing man who picked her up and spun her around.

Her mother and father, Lyra and Luis. She couldn't remember their last names, but at least it was something. The memories of them were frustratingly dim, and they made her sad for some reason.

She didn't know why she was here, or why those monsters keep attacking her despite her efforts. All she knew (and that was after speaking with a strange long-nosed man) was that she needs to get out of this world and to find her true self, whatever that was.

Her hand reached for her weapon, an aqua green, thin, light, sharp-pointed sword used for thrusting. A rapier, she remembered. At least she remembered some things. The hilt was engraved to circle around her hand, like a small, elegant storm. It was stained with Shadow blood from the times she stabbed and slashed at monsters, cutting them in half and running away before the monsters reformed.

She stood up and faced the world that looked so familiar, but at the same time, not.

"Ready as I'll ever be…"


	28. Golden Ghost

She dubbed herself Goldie.

Maybe because she didn't like the other name she thought of, or maybe it's because it just felt right, but she dubbed herself Goldie.

Goldie remembered her entire childhood. How her father wiped away her tears when she gets pushed around in school, how her mother laughed when Goldie got too excited and give her father a hard time by running around the house, and how they both were all there for her no matter what.

They stopped appearing a few months after she turned seven, which frustrated her greatly. Either they were dead, or they abandoned her, which wouldn't happen. They both loved her dearly in her memories… but she couldn't imagine them dead…

Goldie also remembered a few other things. A fuzzy memory of herself and three others playing a card game, with the three screaming curses and herself cackling madly, and "I win, bitches!" for some absurd reason. The people in her memory were so blurry, she couldn't make out their features.

She still couldn't remember her name, which was insanely frustrating. If she finds her true self, whatever that was, she was going to find the long-nosed man, and punch him in the face for making her life difficult and for not returning her memories. If he wanted Goldie to find her true self, he could have given her a list of directions.

* * *

Goldie _really_ wanted to punch the long-nosed man. This time, after punching him, she'll stick her rapier so far up his arse, it'll be sticking out of his mouth.

Okay, maybe she should explain.

Goldie met him again after narrowly escaping a giant ball with teeth and a disgustingly slimy tongue that liked to lick literally _everything_. He told her to trust her instincts and accept her true self. Then he knocked her out and sent her to darkness.

As she screamed bloody murder about very interesting threats to the long-nosed man (That rapier looks very interesting in his arse), she landed in a creepy room. Hard. She cursed and tried to get up when she looked at her hand and almost jumped ten feet in the air in surprise and shock. Her hand was gold and kind of transparent… _and so was the rest of her body…!_

Goldie cursed and floated (yes floated) up. She quickly searched for a mirror shard she found in the fog world, being careful not to cut herself, and looked in her reflection. The mirror shard wasn't the cleanest mirror, but it did come in handy. Her face was dirty and scratched, and her hair was messed as usual, but her whole body was transparent. Gold, yes, but transparent. It was incredibly weird.

There was a boy, no, _man_ , in chains, with a gigantic cat prowling around him, for some reason. Goldie noted his eyes were green, kind of like celery.

"Hello?" She called out. She got no answer, so she poked him in the arm. Goldie can touch him, which was weird since she was literally a ghost, but the man didn't react at all, which was even weirder. Goldie looked up and floated around the room.

There was another man. He was prancing back and forth, biting his thumb. Unlike the other boy, he had black eyes, like coal, but it looked as though it used to be filled with laughter and mischief. Now it was worried and afraid.

"Hey, Aiden?" The black-eyed man said, which almost made Goldie jump out of her skin (if she even has skin). "Look, I'm still mad at you for what you did to… you know… yesterday, but come on, man, just say something."

'Aiden' didn't answer. He merely looked down. Goldie floated around the cage. She didn't know what Aiden had done, but he looked really guilty about it. Plus, the black-eyed man talked as though he was going to die, and Aiden looked as though he thought he deserved to die. Goldie doesn't want him to die and if he felt really guilty about whatever he did, then he's forgiven.

Goldie slipped through the bars of the cage and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. She doesn't know if he could feel her, not to mention, she doesn't even know him, but he looked like he needed a hug.

She felt his muscles tense, then relaxed, so she assumed he can. She was proven right when he lifted up a hand and grasped hers gently.

Then it happened.

"Time's up! Ooo, so close! So sorry, but I'm afraid **you are too late**."

The voice sent a shiver down Goldie's spine. Somehow, she got the feeling that the voice wasn't human. It reminded her of the monsters she fought against in the fog world.

Goldie suddenly found herself being forcefully ripped away from Aiden by some sort of wind. Aiden twisted around, looking confused by the sudden lack of contact, and made eye contact with her. His eyes widen, and Goldie knew he saw her.

She tried to float towards him, but a white flash blinded her for a second. There was a loud scream. Aiden's chains and cage had vanished and to Goldie's horror, the cat lunged for him, its claws sharp and deathly, and pointed _straight at_ _Aiden's neck—_

The black-eyed man screamed in despair as the cat sank its claws into Aiden's neck. Goldie found herself crying for the man she had hugged in comfort and forced herself to look away because even if she wanted to help (and she definitely wanted to help), she couldn't. She tried and failed because the cat only passes through her, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't block out the screams of pain and misery.

When she looked back, Aiden's body was laying on the ground, celery green eyes blank, the last of his shock of seeing her fading, and his neck and chest ripped open. Goldie felt like she was going to be sick from the blood.

Goldie heard hurried footsteps, so she turned around and saw a huge group of people running into the room. One of them, a beautiful woman with long black hair pinned back with a yellow chip, started sobbing.

"AIDEN! NO!" She screamed. She tried to get to Aiden's body, but a man with blonde hair step forward and wrap his arms around her waist.

"Jesse, we're too late, h-he's dead!

"No! We just lost Maya—we can't lose him too! I don't care what Aiden did yesterday, he doesn't deserve to die!"

Goldie frowned. There was it again. What did Aiden do? Goldie floated around the room and listened in the conservation, hoping to get some information.

A woman with black hair in pigtails looked down, her lips forming into a thin line. "He didn't even get to say anything…"

A man about seven feet tall with messy black hair growled. "That bitch! She knew that our grief will make us faster… she sent more of those monsters after us! Gugh—!"

Goldie yelped in surprise when she felt something pass through her stomach, which happened to be a knife. She followed it and saw it nearly stab the big guy in the neck. If he didn't duck, he'll be killed instantly.

"Axel—!" A woman with auburn hair yelped.

"Oooh, good dodge~" The voice from before spoke up. It seemed to be coming from all over the room. "But you might not be so lucky next time~"

A man with brown hair and emerald eyes growled. "Grrrr…"

A girl with brown hair in a ponytail frowned. "How many more of us are going to die…? How many of us are going to be slaughtered until she's satisfied?..."

Another girl with black hair and glasses put her hand on her shoulder. "I don't know, Seri… I don't know…"

There was another girl with vibrant red hair. She gritted her teeth. "How cruel can she be to have him be murdered by the same thing that killed his girlfriend?!"

Goldie pursed her lips and floated over to Aiden and fished out a silver coin from her pocket. She didn't even remember having the coin, but she pried open Aiden's jaw and gently tuck it under his tongue. Most of her recovered memories involved her parents, but she remembered doing the same thing at a funeral. Whose funeral, she didn't know, but tucking the coin under Aiden's tongue just felt right. The coin involved something about Hades, but other than that, nothing.

Goldie heard a sharp gasp. She turned around and saw the black-eyed man staring at her with wide eyes. That's when she knew he saw her. Goldie tilted her head at him and pulled her hand away from Aiden's mouth.

She startled when Aiden's body was abruptly dragged away from her the moment she pulled away. She watched the body go with a frown and anxiously checked to see if anyone saw that.

A person (because she couldn't tell what gender they were) with brown hair pulled in a ponytail and several strands of hair covering their face pointed at Aiden's body."Cruel enough to do this. Look, that body's already being dragged away."

A woman with long brown hair and royal blue eyes twisted around and snarled. "Did you have to point that out?!"

"The Order are already suffering the loss of three friends!" A man that looked similar to the royal blue-eyed woman scowled.

"Pointing that out will make it worse!"

"And we don't want that."

A girl with short brown hair with magenta streaks frowned at the person with the ponytail. "They're right, Mase. Come on. Let's get out of here. I need to discuss something with the twins and Rin."

A woman with long black hair and pale skin snapped into attention. "Huh? Oh right, that thing."

Soon, everyone started walking out of the room, except for Gill. He was still staring at her. One of the girls, a black-haired girl with purple and red streaks in her hair (the bottom half being a grayish-blue) turned around. "Gill, are you coming?"

 _Gill… so that was his name,_ Goldie thought. She watched Gill nod slowly, his eyes still on her. "Yeah, just give me a second."

The girl stared at him, frowning. Then, seeming to have come to a decision, she nodded. "...alright then."

Goldie floated over to him and stopped a few feet away from him. Gill reached out to her but to her surprise, his hand just passed through her. Gill frowned, but brushed it off and looked up at her.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Call me Goldie," she said.

Gill tilted his head. "Goldie, huh? You're a gold ghost, so it suits you… You kind of look like someone I know… but I can't put my finger on it… "

"Well, I… I don't know who I am, so I'm going by that name for now. And no, I'm not a ghost."

Gill frowned. "You don't know who you are? That's sad… but are you sure you're not a ghost? You look like a ghost."

"I'm sure. Er, I'm sure I wasn't before. If it wasn't for that long-nosed man, my body wouldn't even be this way."

"Long-nosed man?"

Goldie scowled. "Yeah. He knows me, but he wouldn't say anything about my past and it's super irritating… that aside, Gill right? That girl called you that."

Gill pursed his lips and nodded. "Yeah, it's Gill. Anyway, I saw you put that coin under Aiden's tongue, assuming you know his name, why is that?"

Goldie shrugged. "I dunno… it just felt right." She glanced at her hands, which were fading, and frowned. "Hey, those monsters your big friend mentioned… Axel, right?... what are the monsters called and what do they look like?"

"Yeah, that's Axel. The monsters are Shadows from what Ann and her assistants told us. They're big blobs of black goop that sometimes form into creatures, why?"

Goldie paled instantly. The long-nosed man may be an irritating one, but he did taught her all about Shadows, so she knew exactly what kind of Shadows Gill and his friends are dealing with. "They're dangerous!"

Gill snorted humorlessly, "Yeah, we got that."

"No, you don't understand—they can eat your psyche, or soul, or whatever. You'll be reduced to a vegetative state—"

Gill's eyes widened. "What?! Wait, how do I know you're telling the truth? If they can do that, why haven't they done it by now?"

"You can avoid and fight them as long as possible, but if you're off guard, they can easily eat your psyche. You guys look like a tough lot. You can take of yourselves but the best thing to do with them is to avoid the shadows — they can travel through them! I'm sorry, I would tell you more, but I don't know if I have much time—"

"Wait, Goldie, will you come back and explain more to us? To all of us?"

"I'll try!" Goldie cried out. "I don't know how but I'll try!"

And she faded into darkness, curling into a ball as the cold washed over her. When she gets back, she was going to punch the long-nosed man in the face. And punch whoever caused Aiden's death while at it too.

* * *

 _"Stop! Let me go!"_

 _"Oh Eliza~ I'm sorry, but you're treading on thin ice~ Very thin ice for that matter~ I have your precious sons and I'm not afraid to hand them over to the killers~"_

 _"Please! I've played those stupid games! Just let us go!"_

 _"You have failed six of those games… I'm afraid I can't, sweetheart~"_

 _"Don't call me sweetheart! You killed my parents, my sisters, my husband, I won't stand for any of this 'sweetheart' nonsense!"_

 _ **"I said you're treading on fucking thin ice, sweetheart."**_

 _"Gaak!"_

 _"Goodbye, sweetheart."_

 _"No… m-my sons…"_

 _"Don't worry, sweetheart~ Your sons are in good hands~"_

 _"N-No…"_


	29. The Fifth Intermission

Rin: Aiden's dead.

Aaron: You're joking…

Rin: I'm not

Aaron: What happened?...

Rin: Well, Aiden was in the same death trap as Maya and we had to find Gill's leather jacket. My team found it, but we were delayed by the hounds of Shadows, so by the time we reached the room, it was too late.

Aaron: I can't believe this… First Maya, then Angel, and now Aiden. What's with her targeting the Order and their friends?

Rin: I do have a hunch. Remember what I tried to tell you before I got dragged away?

Aaron: It's kinda hard to forget.

Rin: Well, I'm pretty sure Jesse and Angel are both her targets, even though Angel is more of a target. Since Angel is already dead, she's targeting Jesse's remaining friends to make sure she's not a threat.

Rin: Jesse can't live without her friends, she'll be destroyed and the lady knows it. Angel is more likely to explode and charge forward for her friends, so she'll be a big problem for the lady.

Aaron: That's... a bit overwhelming.

Aaron: You still haven't explain why Jesse and Angel are both her targets by the way.

Rin: Oh! Right! Okay, Jesse and Angl are both equally stubborn and a great believer in justice, so they're both candidates for Personas. We knew this the moment they walked in the lodge, so we decided to get them to Igor to see if we can get them to grow.

Rin: We can invite them via handshake, but unlike Igor, we can only use it once. Ann got to invite Angel, while I got to invite Jesse when they get to bed.

Aaron: How on Earth did you do that?

Rin: I snuck a rock under her mattress, so she called for an assistant, I fixed the problem, offered my hand, and there she goes.

Aaron: Normally, I would ask how you snuck a rock under her mattress without her knowing, but knowing how you were as a child, I'm not going to ask.

Rin: Good to know. Anyway, the two showed no signs of seeing Igor, but Jesse was the second last person to wake up after Angel, so we assumed they did see hin.

Aaron: Why is that? What is waking up later than everyone else mean?

Rin: Your mind is consciously awake when you go to the Velvet Room. Igor usually talks to you for a few hours, then let's your mind go to sleep. That's why guests of the Velvet Room wake up much later.

Aaron: That… is a lot to take in.

Aaron: Wait, are you a guest?

Rin: Yes, I am.

Aaron: Oh. OH!

Aaron I feel so bad for your friends in the mornings after the Velvet Room, haha.

Rin: What are you doing?

Rin: Why are you not responding.

Rin: ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME?

Rin: You are!

Aaron: Oh Irene, I need to stop laughing, Aphmau is giving me a strange look so I need to stop.

Rin: That's not funny. Do you know how exhausted I was after talking with Igor?

Aaron: You're always exhausted in mornings. You're not a morning person, especially in high school.

Rin: Shut up, Aaron.

Aaron: 8D

Rin: Hphm. ANYWAY, before I was so rudely interrupted, as we observed Jesse and Angel, we discovered that Angel is more of a threat because

Aaron: Rin…?

Aaron: Are you there?

Aaron: Oh my Irene, are you okay?

Aaron: I'm sorry I laughed at you, just tell me you're okay.

Rin is typing…

Rin: No fair, the one time I scared you over text, it wasn't a prank.

Aaron: Rin, you scared me!

Rin: Sorry. Gill just came back. I gotta go. I think he's trying to tell us something...

Aaron: Alright, I love you.

Rin: Love you too.

* * *

"Alright," Mason said slowly. "So let me get this straight. This Goldie girl, who we couldn't see, happened to appear next to Aiden, put a silver coin under his tongue, and told you that Shadows can apparently reduce us to a vegetative state by eating our psyche or soul?"

Gill bit his lip and nodded. "Pretty much, yeah."

To be honest, Jesse was really skeptical about Goldie. There was no way Gill can happen to see a ghost who knows how to fight the Shadows, but that changed when Seri interrupted after Gill told them about Goldie's tip.

"Oh! So that's why!" Seri had said, snapping her fingers. She flushed at the stares. "We were running away from those Shadows earlier and one of them popped out of nowhere from the darkness! It was scary."

Jesse frowned. She and her team never faced these problems. Sure they mostly searched around the lodge and hid whenever they spotted a Shadow, but she would have thought they faced the problems.

When everyone from the other teams agreed and shared their experiences, skepticism gave way to hope. With Goldie as an informant, they could get to the victims faster!

However, Ann was the only one who didn't look happy about the news. "That's nice and all but how did she know about that fact? We've been researching the Shadows for years. There's no way we could miss this."

"Goldie mentioned a long-nosed man," Gill said, which nearly made Jesse choke and rub her throat.

The quill in Renee's hand snapped neatly in half and Annabelle and Adrian's heads snapped up from their whispered discussion. Ann's eyebrows rose until they were hidden by her hair. Jesse wondered why they reacted like that.

"Long-nosed man?" Renee asked cautiously. She looked alarmed and, strangely enough, annoyed.

"Yeah. She seems really annoyed with him though. I think she was muttering about shoving a rapier up his arse when talking about him."

It reminded her so much of Angel, Jesse both laughed and choked. It reminded her of the time Angel got so mad at an old man for harassing a little girl, she shoved a broomstick up his arse and dumped him in a dumpster. They still laugh about it to this day.

Still, she was curious. The long-nosed man may be the same person as the man she bumped into.

"Well, the long-nosed man seemed suspicious, but there's still something bothering me…" Lukas said, frowning to himself. "You said she put a silver coin under his tongue?"

"Yeah, she did, I asked her why but she just shrugged and said it felt right. Why?"

Jace spoke up next, much to everyone who didn't know him's surprise. "Well, in Greek Mythology, when Hades took over the underworld, he forced Charon to limit the payment to one silver coin. If you want your dead person to go to the underworld, you have to put a silver coin under their tongue. Maybe in Goldie's past life, she'd done it to someone in her life and subconsciously remembered it?"

Jace looked pale and shocked, so did the rest of their friends as well as Jesse herself. In Angel's family, it's tradition to tuck a silver coin under a friend or family member's tongue. You have to know Angel very well to know that fact. Jesse should know. It took two years for Angel to finally share her family tradition. Jesse can already imagine her yelling at Jace for telling the story wrong.

" _Jace, you forgot to tell them that Charon is the ferryman who carried the souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron!" Angel complained several times. "If you don't give him the coin, Charon forces them to wander the shores for a hundred years!"_

Goldie just seems eerily similar to Angel for some reason. Both of them wield rapiers and have something to do with Greek Mythology. And now that Jesse thinks about it, Gill hadn't mentioned Goldie's description yet.

"Gill, what does Goldie look like?" She asked. Gill stared at her for the sudden question but answered her question anyway.

"She's a gold ghost, like I said, so I couldn't tell her hair color or eye color, but she wears leggings, combat boots, a belt with a sheath hanging from it, a shirt with armor pads on her shoulders, a really long scarf and long hair that reached to her butt and covered the rest of her facial features, and lots of scars. She looked really scratched up too, and her clothes were ripped up. That's all I can tell, sorry. Why did you as— oh." He said when Jesse's face fell. "I'm sorry Jesse, but that's not Angel."

Gill was right. Goldie isn't Angel. Angel hates her scars and made sure none of hers were visible. Goldie didn't seem at all bothered with hers. Angel never wore a sheath since her rapier doesn't need one, but Goldie did. Angel would never hide her face, even from her attackers, but Goldie did. Angel made sure her hair was never too long, but Goldie's reached to her butt. This can't be Angel. They may be similar, but the differences stuck out like a sore thumb.

"...right," Jesse said quietly, then winced when she unintentionally worsen the mood. "I'm sorry. I thought it was her."

Petra looked away, "It's alright, Jesse. I thought so too."

Annabelle gracefully got up. "Let's go to bed everyone. Get some rest. We can't linger on Angel and Aiden's deaths anymore," She said, referring to when they were mourning Angel and Aiden's deaths before Gill came in and told them about Goldie.

Adrian nodded. "We also need to discuss the information about the Shadows and the long-nosed man. Let's not watch the news and go to bed."

And so Jesse collapsed on her bed from exhaustion ten minutes later, her mind swimming from Goldie and how she failed her two friends.

* * *

" _Mommy! I'm scared… the scary lady is still here… Mommy, I wanna to go home…"_

" _Mom? Where are you?"_

" _Alex! Angie! Mom said not to get out of your rooms until she gets you!"_

" _But James! Mommy's not anywhere in the lodge!"_

" _I want mom!"_

" _I know you're scared, but it's still dangerous in here! Mom put me in charge, so it's my job to keep you two safe. Come on and sleep with me if you're scared."_

" _O-Okay, James…"_

" _Look! Is that mommy? Mommy!"_

" _Alex, get back here!"_

" _James? Why is mommy crawling like that? What is that red liquid dripping down her chin?"_

" _...oh no..."_

" _James? Is that mom? Why is she crying blood?"_

" _Angie, sweetie, can you go get Bill and Charlie? Tell them to get their butts out of bed and run. I'll catch up to them later."_

" _Huh? Why?"_

" _Do it now, please. Do it for mom!"_

" _O-Okay!"_

" _ALEX, GET OUT OF THERE! THAT'S NOT MOM!"_

" _But it looks just like mommy! A scary version of mommy..."_

" _Alex, please, that's not mom! Argh, take that! Alex, Mom will never deliberately scare you like that!"_

" _James, what the hell is going on?"_

" _Charlie, take Bill and Angie and run as far as you can away from here? I'll catch up, okay?"_

" _But James—"_

" _Bill, go!"_

" _Alex, get over here, please!"_

" _But what about mommy?"_

" _I don't know where she is, but I'm sure we'll feel the real one soon, alright?"_

" _A-Alright…"_


	30. Spy

A few hours after collapsing in her bed, Jesse found herself in the Velvet Room again.

Her room took in the form of a large, cozy, treehouse on a tree with royal blue leaves that danced lazily around the treehouse. Large blue velvet curtains covered every inch of the walls and there was an open ceiling that revealed the velvet sky. Jesse drinks in the couches that were scattered around the treehouse, then her eyes landed on the long table, expecting to see the long-nosed man with his assistant.

However, he wasn't there. Jesse narrowed her eyes in suspicion. If the man wasn't here, why was she called here?

"If you're looking for someone, I'm afraid no one's here except you and me."

Jesse turned sharply, and her emerald eyes meet a familiar pair of silver eyes.

A girl was sitting on one of the couches in the Velvet Room. At first, she thought she was looking at a more confident version of Angel. Then, she realized it wasn't.

The girl's silver eyes weren't surrounded by golden blonde hair. Instead, it was surrounded by bright copper hair.

The girl had long, bright copper hair, bright silver eyes, and caramel skin. She was wearing a cobalt blue shirt, black leggings, black combat boots, a gold sheath dangling from her black belt, and an emerald green scarf. She was also scratched up, had lots of scars, and her clothes were ripped up. Her hair and scarf covered most of her facial features. She fit Goldie's description that Gill provided perfectly.

Goldie held herself confidently. Her back was straight, her hands folded on her lap, her silver eyes staring straight at her, almost _demanding_ for Jesse to speak.

"You're Goldie," Jesse said in shock. "You're the ghost Gill met."

"And you're Jesse," Goldie said. She dropped her confident facade and sat forward. Jesse suspected she was smiling under her scarf. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Goldie," Jesse said. Then her brow furrowed. "I thought you didn't have your memories."

Goldie reached up and pulled down her scarf, revealing a dash of freckles across her nose. She looked as though she was trying not to smile. "I don't remember anything past the age of seven, that's true. But I heard your name when I was a ghost. I was around a few minutes before Aiden's death."

"Oh," Jesse said. She felt her cheeks burning from embarrassment and her gut twisting at the mention of Aiden's death. "Sorry, I assumed you came in a few minutes after Aiden d-d-d-died."

Jesse hoped Goldie wouldn't notice the stutter, but from the way Goldie was looking at her in sympathy, she did. Thankfully, Goldie didn't say anything about it.

"It's alright," she said. "I'm sure Gill thought that as well."

Jesse scratched her neck, "I guess so." Suddenly, she remembered why she was here and who was supposed to greet her. "Um, I don't mean to change the subject, but where's the long-nosed man?"

Goldie blinked. "Long-nosed—oh, you must be talking about Igor. He is here, but he told me he's blocked from talking to anyone."

Jesse's eyes widen. "By who?!"

Goldie pursed up her lips. "By someone named Black Musical. From what Igor told me, she put a spell on the Velvet Room so that nobody can talk to him."

"Then how can I—"

"Just because she made sure nobody can talk to him doesn't mean he can't call his guests to the Velvet Room," Goldie said. "You just can't see him."

"If I can't talk to him, how can you—?"

"The spells only blocks humans from talking to him. I was created from some sort of essence. There's more, but I tuned out everything since it's a bit too much for me."

Jesse laughed nervously. "Wow, his assistant must really hate you for doing that." She stopped laughing when Goldie stared at her blankly.

"You… don't know who his assistant is?"

Goldie shook her head. "No… All I know is that I'm not human because of the essence, then Igor dumped me here to talk to you."

"Oh! Speaking of that, you know all about the shadows we're dealing with, right?"

Goldie rose her eyebrow. "Yes, I do. Ah, I know what you're thinking. You want me to tell you more about them."

Jesse nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, I do! I can't believe I actually forgot about them, please tell me!"

Goldie stood up to her full height. Jesse groaned mentally when she saw Goldie's at least seven inches taller than her.

"I can't, I'm afraid."

Jesse's mind went blank. "Wha-? Why?"

"The person who put a spell on the Velvet Room also made sure any information shared inside stays inside. So even if I tell you, the information will be erased from your mind until you come here again. You'll have to wait until I turn into a ghost again to tell you."

Rage boiled under her skin. "T-T-That monster! Why does she want to make it harder for us to—"

Goldie held out a hand. "Calm down. There's also another problem. Even if this person didn't prevent information from leaving this place, there's also the fact that she will find out and make it harder."

Jesse furrowed her brow. "How?"

Goldie looked at her straight in the eye. "Promise me you'll keep this between us if you remember this conversation after waking up."

Jesse hesitated, "I… Promised."

The next words Goldie said nearly gave Jesse a heart attack.

"There's a traitor among your midst. A spy that tells Black Musical everything about your group. Be careful of who you trust and what you tell. You'll never know if it will cost your friends' lives."

* * *

It was really weird waking up and seeing that Lukas was the first person up.

Angel was usually the first one up, Maya being the next, so when Lukas woke up, he would see them in the living room. Angel smiled upon seeing him and handing him a cup of coffee as he sat down to write in his book. Maya would hug him then went back to whatever she was doing, and they'll wait for everyone else to wake up.

As Lukas laid in bed, he remembered the times Angel wasn't the first one awake. The first time was the morning after arriving. He came into the living room and was surprised to see that Maya was the only one there. When he asked about Angel, Maya shrugged and said "She's dead asleep. I guess she was really queasy last and needed more rest."

He accepted the reason and forgot about to worry about it when Angel woke up later on and made his morning coffee before playing DBD with Adrian and the Blaze Rods.

The second time the morning after Maya died. He woke up to Ariza's shouting and was looking for Angel and Maya in the living room until he realized the latter was dead and the other was missing, which bothered him as he heads back into the dorms. When he saw Angel was dead, he remembered mourning the fact that he was now the only morning person in their group as he comforted Jesse, with only Angel's morning coffee, her motherly and protective nature, and the spark in her eyes as she advanced on jerks to remember Angelina Amari by.

Lukas felt sad. He felt like he'll never get used to being the first one to wake up, even after escaping the lodge, if they did escape.

He was still getting used to it. To get it off his mind, he went to the TV and tried to turn it on, but instead, the screen turned black with a message written in white.

 _The Television is now officially unavailable from now on. The news is way too informative about the outside world, which is not relative to the Hunting Games. It will only be available when the Games start._

 _—The Black Musical_

So now he was sitting in the kitchen. Seri had come in twenty minutes ago and sat across from him, eating cookies. Jesse followed five minutes later and after he told her the TV was now unavailable for watching the news, she fell asleep.

"Morning, Rin," Seri said sleepily as Renee walked in.

Renee nodded in greeting and headed over to the coffee machine to make herself a cup of coffee. Lukas noted with amusement that Renee looked rather like a zombie with a massive bedhead.

Lukas averted his gaze from Renee to stare at Jesse, who was dozing silently on the table. The sight was adorable until he remembered what Maya, Angel, and Aiden would say when they notice.

 _"Seriously?" Angel exclaimed, laughing as she head over. "You don't have the balls to ask her out and yet, you stare at her like this? Come on!"_

 _"Looks like you became a stalker, Lukas," Maya teased as she followed Angel._

 _Aiden shook his head and threw his arm around Lukas. "They're right, you know. You two are getting ridiculous."_

That memory just made him even more depressed, which add to the anxiousness he's been feeling since Black Musical randomly popped in the living room TV and announced that there will be two victims instead of one for now on.

He sighed and got up to get a glass of milk, gently directing Renee's head from the salt to the sugar in the process. "Good morning, Renee. Did you hear her message?"

"I did," Renee said sourly. "I can't believe this, it's hard enough to save one victim, now it's upped to two? Ugh."

Lukas frowned and glanced at Jesse. Jesse wasn't woken up by the message and had to be woken up and explained about what the message was. If Renee, who was said to be dead to the world when asleep and blows off anyone's head if they try to wake her up, was woken up by her, why wasn't Jesse?

"Hey, Seri," Renee said suddenly. She sipped her finished coffee and said, "Did you visit Angel before she, you know…"

Seri looked up and nodded. "Yeah, I did. It was a few hours after she went to bed… why? Something wrong?"

Renee rubbed her eyes, "I decided to look into her murder and found a plate with cookie crumbs in Angel's desk drawer. Seeing as you're famous for cookies, I assumed it was you who gave her the cookies."

"Oh, yeah, that was me. I gave her a plate of raspberry cookies to cheer her up. When I came in, she looked horrible. N-No offense to her or anything, but there were tear tracks on her cheeks and she had red, puffy eyes. Morning, Anna."

"Morning," Anna said back as she walked in.

As the two friends whispered to each other, Renee frowned to herself and quietly sipped her coffee. Lukas didn't know what she was thinking, but before he could think more about it, Jesse stirred.

"Mmm, what's going on?"

Lukas hid a smile, "Nothing much," He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Renee and Anna just woke up and we found out Seri visited Angel two nights ago."

Jesse straightened up and met his eyes. "Did she?"

Lukas nodded. "Yeah, she did. Seri said she visited to give her cookies."

Something flickered in Jesse's eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. She looked away and reached for his hand. "I see…"  
They sat in silence. Other time, everyone gradually came in, some tense, some grim-faced, and some looking anxious.

Then _she_ popped in.

"Good morning, everyone~" Black Musical chirped. "Has everyone heard the message~?"

Nobody said anything. They didn't need to.

"Excellent!" Black Musical squealed. "Now let's get to it! Three of your beloved friends are already dead, one is by mysterious causes, so now eighteen of you are left. The amount of members in each team is still the same as always, no need to worry. TV is now unavailable, as you may be informed. The reason for this is revealed upon turning it on. Any information spoken about Goldie is now strictly prohibited."

This made gasps erupt in the group.

 _"What?!"_

"Why?!"

Lukas glanced at Jesse and saw her emerald eyes widening, then lit up with a spark that says I-have-a-plan-and-you-can't-stop-me. He wondered what was.

"You have a plan?" Lukas whispered in Jesse's ear.

Jesse glanced at him, pointed at the TV, which displayed Black Musical, then looked at him again.

 _I'll tell you later,_ Her eyes seem to say. Lukas understood and turned back to the TV.

"Goldie is not apart of your group and therefore, counts as a person outside. People outside cannot help you and that includes information about the shadows you're dealing with. Very sorry~"

With the way Black Musical said it, Lukas had a feeling she wasn't sorry. He resigned himself to watching her happily dragging away Petra and Axel to start the game.

* * *

 _"AGH!"_

 _"JAMES!"_

 _"I'm fine, go! I'll catch up!"_

 _"But—"_

 _"GO!"_

 _"HISSSSSSSSS. DIE!"_


	31. Comfort

_...Seven Hours ago...  
_

 _Time: ...3:00 AM…_

"Ahem."

Adrian's hand immediately shots to his bow, but relaxed when he realizes it was just his sister, looking straight at him.

She was dressed in a simple shirt and shorts. Her hair was a bit tousled from sleep and her eyes had a hint of crimson in them. Annabelle looked really tired.

She raises her eyebrow at him.

"You're up late again."

She didn't state it as a question.

Adrian sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I know and I'm sorry. I just couldn't sleep..."

Annabelle rolled her eyes. "It's alright. I don't blame you. I only went to sleep after I drank a Dreamless Sleep Potion."

"You should stop taking those—you can get addictive. How did you know I was awake anyway?"

She snorts so violently, Adrian was pretty sure her nose almost broke. "You snore. Loudly. I woke up and was about to drink another Dreamless Sleep Potion when I noticed it was a bit quiet and got suspicious."

Adrian didn't bother to argue. This was the girl who lived with him for nineteen years. She is the person who knows him the most.

"So why are you here?" Annabelle suddenly asks.

He blinked. "Pardon?"

"Why are you in Angel's room?"

Adrian stays silent. He was hoping she wouldn't ask that, but Annabelle's way too sharp for her own good.

"Well? Come on, Adrian, you can trust me. And don't worry about anyone listening in. I put silencing spells all over the room."

 _Damn, she really thought over this,_ Adrian thought. Then again, he shouldn't be surprised anymore. She _is_ his twin sister after all.

"Alright fine, I came here to investigate Angel's murder."

"Ah, so you felt that shadow presence, eh?"

"How did you—"

"I felt it too, dumbass. But I didn't want to investigate it in case it was too dangerous. Apparently, you didn't listen to the danger and head straight in without any protection."

"I—"

"Don't even bother to defend yourself. I know you. I bet you were aware of the danger but because of curiosity, you decided to check it out anyway."

Adrian sighed and didn't confirm or deny it. It was no use lying to her anyway. She knows him too well.

She took his silence as an affirmation.

"Honestly Adrian. Anyway, I tried to tell Ann about the presence, but she snapped at me and continued researching the shadows."

Adrian smiled slightly. "Well, she looks really tired and stressed out, and you know how Ann is with lack of sleep. Remember the time her family went to Universal Studios?"

Both of them winced at the memory.

"Yeah definitely," Annabelle sighed.

"Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I was searching for the shadow presence, felt frustrated with the lack of evidence, destroyed the floorboard—"

"Oh yeah," Annabelle said, glancing at the hole in the floor. "I was wondering about that. Continue."

"Haha. And I found this underneath."

He slowly handed Annabelle the paper in his hands, who took it and flipped it over to read it and watched the blood drain from her face when she finished.

 _There's a spy._

 _The spy is human_

 _Don't trust anyone_

 _Not even your friends._

 _~Angel_

The paper slips from Annabelle's fingers. "What in the—?" Her head snapped over to the hole and said, "The hole was near her arm, right?"

"Yup."

"Left or right?"

"Left."

"Angel is left-handed… Oh, my Hecate—do you think it's the reason why Angel was killed?"

"Has to be… there was blood splattered all over the paper."

 _"How the hell are you so calm?!"_

"I dunno," Adrian said bitterly. "Maybe I'm channeling my old self."

He sees her flinch violently and immediately he feels bad because she changed around the same time as he did.

"Sorry," He says softly. "I didn't think."

"It's okay," Annabelle said quietly and she plops next to him and runs her hands through her hair. Adrian could almost imagine the burns on her skin four years ago after he dragged her out of a fire of pit when he shoved her in.

There were a few moments of silence, before Adrian spoke up, "There are more letters, you know."

"What?" Annabelle said sharply.

"Yeah, but it's all in some sort of code. Here's one of the letters."

He handed her one of the letters from under the floorboard and watches her eyebrows shot up to her hairline.

 _TW9uc3RlciBqdXN0IGNhbWUgb3V0IG9mIHRoZSBUViBhbmQgaXQncyB0cnlpbmcgdG8ga2lsbCBtZS0tClBsZWFzZSBoZWxwLS0=_

"It's Base64 Code…" Annabelle said eventually. "That makes sense… she's a hacker, so she must know all sorts of codes."

"Do you know what it says?"

"Unfortunately no…"

"Maybe we should take it to Rin. She's a hacker too—"

 _ **"NO!"**_ Annabelle shouts so suddenly, Adrian jumped about a foot in the air. His eyes dratts to the door, before remembering the silencing spells, then drats back to Annabelle.

"Why not? She's a werewolf and Angel clearly wrote that the spy is human. We can trust her—"

"I know what Angel wrote, but Rin trusts everyone in the lodge. Except for maybe a few others, but you get the point. Rin can keep a secret but what if she tells someone she trusts and that person turns out to be the spy?"

"Well, we can ask her to not tell anyone," Adrian said, but even as he said that it knew it wasn't true. Rin was way too stubborn on her beliefs, and if she believes the person is trustworthy enough to know the secret, she'll tell him.

As if she could read his mind (which she probably can), Annabelle gives him a look that says _'_ _See?'_

"Okay," Adrian says eventually. "We're not going to tell Rin. But Rin is the only other hacker besides Angel, how are we going to decode Angel's letters?"

Annabelle's eyes gleamed with determination. "We do what we have to do. We're going to learn Base64 if we have to. We have to decode her letters."

"I… right."

Annabelle's brows furrowed. "Adrian, are you alright?"

"I don't know… Anna, will we be able to get out of here? We only managed to win three of these stupid games and with our luck lately, I'm not so sure if we can win…"

Annabelle paused for a few moments, then said, "I won't lie to you that I'm positive we'll get out of here. But we have to try. If we try, then maybe a miracle will happen."

"I just wanna see Neko again," Adrian said, sounding choked. "I wanna go home and endure another trip to the Mall and we can be happy and forget that this entire fucking situation even happened in the first place—"

"I know," Annabelle said quietly, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "I know. We all want to go home. I want to go home."

"It's not fair," Adrian said, shaking and for the first time in a few days, he finally let the stress out of their situation get to him. "Why us? All we wanted to do was hang out and find a potential Persona User, but this shit happened and we're stuck here for Hecate knows how long—people are dying and we have no idea what to fucking do—"

He felt his head being pulled down until it was resting on Annabelle's shoulder. Adrian remembered the times when he would steal her leather jacket and ruin it in some way and she would yell at him. Yet, here he was, crying on her shoulder, soaking her jacket with his tears, and she didn't even say anything.

"I'm scared, Anna," Adrian whispered, feeling her gently rubbing circles on his back. "I'm scared of losing Rin and Ann—I'm scared of losing you again."

"You won't," Annabelle said casually. "I've been thrown in a pit of fire, remember? And I survived. You won't be losing me anytime soon."

But even as she said that, Adrian could feel her barely holding back a flinch at the incident four years ago and noticed how her voice hid a hint of uncertainty. She was just as scared as he was of losing him and was trying to hide it from him.

It was weird being comforted. Before the fire incident, Annabelle was usually the one being comforted. She was more emotional and he had to lend his shoulder for her to cry on several times. But after the incident, she changed, and suddenly, she had to lend her shoulder to him.

It still felt weird being comforted by her, even though it's been four years.

"Who knows," Annabelle said, snapping Adrian out of his thoughts. "Maybe Angel's letters will help us with these stupid games. We could win and get out of here."

"If her letters have anything," Adrian said bitterly.

"Hey, don't be like that. We will find a way to get out of here. I know we will. We just have to hold on to hope."

"That's easier said than done."

"Haha," Annabelle said sarcastically. She got up to her feet and pulled him up. "Come on. Let's go to bed. You look tired."

"Mmm, okay fine."


	32. The Sixth Intermission

They failed again.

Jesse screamed and cried over Petra and Axel's bodies but no matter what she does, it won't bring them back.

Lukas had to drag her to the living room. She could tell he was just as heartbroken as she is. She could tell with the look in his eyes.

Right now they were sitting together, quiet in mourning. Jace had excused himself to go to his room. He's probably punching a few walls and screaming by now.

Jesse glanced at Lukas. She knew she promised to tell him her plan but due to so much happening, she didn't have the time. Not to mention...

Jesse's phone suddenly buzzed.

 _Goldie: You don't have to worry about suspecting your boyfriend._

 _Goldie: The spy is a female._

 _...Goldie is typing…_

 _Goldie: You can cross your boyfriend, your brother, Axel, Gill, that William guy, and Adrian off the list of suspects, maybe even messy haired._

Jesse's face flushed when she read 'boyfriend' but internally sighed in relief. She didn't know what to do if Lukas or Jace were the spy.

She remembers being surprised when she woke up and found out she remembered what happened in the Velvet Room. She was even more surprised when she remembered what Goldie said about the spy and to her.

 _"The only reason why I trust you with this is because Musical is the one who planted nightmares into your mind. She wouldn't deliberately torment her spy when she needs them."_

A spy… to think there's a spy among their midst. Jesse had thought this over as she walked into the kitchen, pausing to hear Lukas explain about the TV not working anymore, then fell asleep to go to the Velvet Room to talk to Goldie, who gave Jesse her number in the end.

After getting the text from Goldie, Jesse exhaled sharply and glanced at the Renee, who was texting someone, her eyebrows furrowed and her bright orange eyes flickering like flames. Jesse was wondering if she was the spy when her phone buzzed again.

 _Goldie: Don't worry. She's just chatting with her brother._

 _Jesse: What are they talking about?_

 _...Goldie is typing…_

 _Goldie: They're talking about Petra and Axel's death as well as you and Angel. Fire and wind. I'm afraid that's all I got._

 _Jesse: What?_

 _Jesse: Why are they talking about me and her?_

 _...Goldie is typing..._

 _Goldie: Renee's a Person User. She's probably figured out what Musical is and is trying to figure out who to defeat her._

 _Jesse: So she isn't the spy?_

 _Goldie: Yes._

 _Goldie: Anyway, at least we finally figured out what you specialize in._

 _Jesse: Fire?_

 _Goldie: Correct._

 _Goldie: From the looks of it, you won't be able to do much damage to Musical. She specializes_ on _fire attacks. And fire blocks fire._

 _Jesse: So that's what Igor meant._

 _Goldie: Yes_

 _Goldie: You should stop texting me now. The spy is suspicious._

 _Jesse: Right_.

* * *

Seri's hands shook. She read Angel's letters over and over, her eyes wide with disbelief and shock. The first one was heartbreaking but the second one...

 _Dear Maya,_

 _I found something out._

 _Everything was so strange and mysterious… I know something's not right. I don't know how she gets her information, but I'm not going to sit here and do nothing about it._

 _So I hacked into the computer systems… it was difficult and I was close to giving up but I did it... It's almost_ 6AM _and I'm tired but I did it. I finally found out._

 _She has a spy… a spy that tells her our every move. From the clues I gathered in their conversations, the spy is human. I couldn't tell what their gender is, but the spy is human, that's for sure._

 _I can't believe we didn't found this out sooner! This would explain how she found out information in your group. I'm going to tell everyone. I have to. This could help us so much! We can get out of here! We can-_

There's a traitor in the group… She couldn't believe it. Everyone — even Jace — seem so trustworthy. And yet…

This was all too much to take in. Seri sat down heavily on the ground, clutching the letters to her chest. She only came here out of curiosity after finding out Renee investigated Angel's… _murder_.

Seri never expected to find _this_.

At least it gave her something. Angel was killed somewhere around 5-6AM. When exactly, Seri didn't know, but at least it was something.

Seri began to tuck Angel's spy letter into her pocket, but jumped violently when a familiar voice spoke up.

"Seri? What are you doing up?"

It was Ann, and she was looking quizzically at Seri. Relieved, Seri opened her mouth to tell her about the spy, but shut it immediately. The revelation of the spy made her nervous, even though she could trust Ann. Or could she?...

"Come on, you can tell me," Ann said reassuringly. "What's wrong?"

"I...I was curious and couldn't sleep," Seri said quickly. That was technically not revealing things right? "So I came here and searched around for a bit."

Ann blinked. "I see… What did you find?"

Seri mentally groaned. She was hoping Ann wouldn't ask that, and it would be too suspicious if she denied she found anything.

"I found this," Seri said, handing Ann Angel's first letter instead. She wasn't lying, it was a half-truth. There was no need to feel guilty. "It was under the bed."

 _Dear Maya,_

 _I'm sorry for everything… I'm sorry we weren't fast enough. There were so many of those things… we couldn't make it in time…_

 _I feel so numb… I stopped crying hours ago, but I can't stop shaking._

 _Aiden blames me for what happened… he tried to kill me but Jesse stopped him… I've never felt so hurt before…_

 _I've long since forgiven him once I went to bed… he looked so guilty, something I've overlooked because of my emotions… but I'm afraid to come out. I'm so tired._

 _William and his friends are a godsend. They kept me company when I didn't want my friends to see me. I like William, Seri, and Anna the most._

 _I'm so scared Maya… I'm scared of not coming home… I don't even know how we're going to be able to get out of here without any of us dying._

 _Will we be able to go home?_

 _I'm scared…_

 _Sincerely,_

 _Angel_

Ann took the letter and after reading it, her eyes softened. "She blamed herself for Maya's death, huh? Poor girl…"

"Yeah," Seri said quietly, hoping Ann wouldn't see the letter tucked into her pocket. "I remember she was really upset."

"It's completely understandable. Those two are really close…" Ann mused. "I can't imagine her reaction when she finds out Aiden, Petra, and Axel were killed… if she were alive that is…"

Seri flinched. She didn't like how casually Ann spoke about the three's deaths.

"Her reaction would be even worse," Seri said, wincing when she thought of how Angel screamed and cried until she couldn't speak anymore.

"Yeah, I guess so," Ann said, frowning. Suddenly, her hand darted out and snatched away the letter in Angel's pocket before Seri could react. It was so unnaturally fast, Seri froze for about ten seconds from shock.

Then she squeaked.

"W-Wait—!"

Ann rose her eyebrow at her. "What are you nervous about? It's just a drawing," she said, showing Seri the supposed drawing.

At first, it was the letter, which confused Seri. But then it flicked into a drawing of Maya and Angel laughing together, then flickered back into the letter.

It confused her even more on how Angel did that, it might have been because Angel was known as an enchantress who can enchant armor and weapons _and_ do magic (Angel didn't say anything about her being an enchantress, but it may be because pretty much everyone knew that), so she might have enchanted the letter so that it'll hide the letter from possible spies, but Seri didn't care, because Ann was looking at her expectedly.

"I wasn't expecting that," Seri said nervously, which was very true. "I didn't expect you to snatch away the drawing like that."

Ann blinked, then laughed. "Yeah, I guess that will startle anybody. Why did you hide this from me, though? Wanted to keep it to yourself to admire the beauty?" She teased playfully.

"U-Um—"

"Relax, I know you. You wanted to make the Order happy, so when you found this, you decided to give this to them and you didn't want to show anyone, since it's really special, right?"

And to Seri's surprise, as Ann paused to inspect the drawing again, words began to appear on the back.

 _Play along._

The words shortly disappeared after she finished reading them. Seri didn't know how the letter knew what's going on, but it was an excuse and she was willing to take it.

So she blurted out, "Yeah. They've been really upset, especially after recent events. So I thought by giving this to them, it might cheer them up."

Ann smiled and put her hand on Seri's shoulder. "You're a really sweet person, you know that?" she said, making Seri smile. "Here, I recommend giving it to Jesse. She needs it right now. And after giving it to her, get some sleep okay? It's been a long day."

"Okay," Seri said, clutching the letter to her chest, watching Ann walk out of the room. She stood there for a few seconds, then flipped the letter over, running her fingers over where the words used to be, then nearly screamed in fright when words suddenly appeared on the paper again.

 _Seri,_

 _Don't tell anyone about the spy. Not even Anna._

 _You could get killed just like how I did._

 _You can brainstorm on who the spy is, but be careful._ There's _cameras hidden in each and every one of the rooms. I manage to hack into the cameras in the dorms so anything suspicious will be hidden but I didn't have time to hack into all the cameras._

 _Please be careful_ on _where you discuss the spy._

 _~Angel_


End file.
